Left and Found
by A-b-san
Summary: I'M REWRITING THIS! SO FOR THE MOMENT; ITS DISCONTINUED! A whitenette with a dark past, powerful spirit ally and a childish brother enters the shaman tournament. But what happens when she meets Yoh and his friends and a certain star boy takes intrest in her? includes swearing, stupidness and later gore HaoxOc
1. Chapter 1

**Left and found: Chapter: 1, shaman fight start!.**

**A: yesss! First chapter of my HaoxOc fic! At last!**

Oc (name will be revealed later):...A-san...what exactly do you mean with HaoxOc?

A: that is to be revealed later my dear friend...fufufu...

Oc: I bet it's no good, what torture are you getting me into? I don't even know this Hao person...

A:...in due time, in due time my friend.

Oc:...wow, that's creepy...oh, well, because A-black is...occupied with playing the 'old and wise guy' I better do the disclaimer. AnonymusBlack does not own Shaman king, if she did...she would for starters be a lot older and smarter, she does however own her Oc's and part if the storyline.

"FUUUUCK! Where the heck are you, idiot brother!" a loud 'bang!' could be heard as a fist slammed against an old shag's wall.  
The fist belonged to a very pissed and white haired girl at 14 years, she wore a black jacket with a black t-shirt under and loose baggy jeans.  
The girl also had a necklace, the chain and amulet attached to it where pitch black, the amulet was in the shape of a raven and it had a small red stone where the eye should have been, had it been real.  
'i really should look after that brother more, even if he's supposed to be the older one' the girl thought and sighted, irritation reflected in her black shaded eyes.  
The girl sat down on the dry ground with a 'thud', legs crossed and chin resting against her palm.  
'damn it! Why did this shaman fight start point thingy have to be so...so big and carnival like, damn brother and his carnival obsession!' the girl cursed again in her head. She closed her eyes and tried to enjoy the quiet, but failed because the sounds from the 'shamanic circus' as she called it, still reached her ears.

"come on Ren, we can sit here behind the shag and eat! It looks nice and quiet!" a voice suddenly exclaimed somewhere behind the shag.  
The girl perked up and turned her head towards the voice. No person was visible yet but she could see some shadows, that weren't there before, growing larger.

"boss is right. It will be more pleasant to talk and eat where it's relatively quiet." another, but much deeper voice remarked.

"whatever." yet another, but arrogant sounding voice grunted and four boy's finally came around the corner of the shag.

"oops, there was a person here afterall." a brown haired boy, in the same age as the girl said as he noticed her.  
He wore a yellow jacket and green pants, he also carried a yellow backpack and a katana plus orange headphones around his neck.

"do you mind if we join you?" he asked the whitenette, giving her a calm smile in the process.

"Yoh! If he's a shaman he might be our next opponent!" a blue haired boy, wich the girl assumed was an ainu because of his style of clothes, shot at the brown haired boy. He wore a skiing outfit and had a snowboard bag on his back.

"erm...", "but he looks so alone, and we can make a new friend!" The headphone guy replied the bluenette before the girl could reply herself.  
"ahem-" the girl tried again to attain their attention but was interrupted yet again.

"but! What if he's a psychopath? He might attack us any moment!" the ainu shouted and the girl started to feel slightly pissed. Did she really look like a psychopath to them?

"does he really look like a psychopath to you?" headphones asked and pouted. Silence filled the air (except for the noices from the 'shamanic circus').

"okay, maybe not...Ren say something!" the ainu exclaimed and turned to a Chinese boy that stood behind headphones, he also seemed to be in the same age as the girl. He had pitch black hair and was pretty short, trough a spiky...thing...on top of his head made him look taller, he also carried a silver suitcase. The Chinese stood beside a much older guy that reminded the girl of Elvis, except for his hair, it looked more like two big hair horns that stuck out on each side of his back head.

"for once I'm with blue head, we don't know who he is or, if he's a shaman, what power he possesses." the Chinese stated calmly and crossed his arms.  
"ahem..." the girl tried to get the boy's attention again. This time, it was a success.

"first things first, im not a he, im a she and if you want I can leave, I was only here because I wanted quiety." the girl stated calmly with a hint of irritation in her voice, she got up from her sitting pose and dusted of some imaginary dust from her pants.

The boy's where silent for a couple of seconds with surprised expressions, but as the girl was about to turn around and leave the ainu started to yell, "IT'S A SHE! IT'S A GIRL! BUT SHE LOOKS LIKE A DUDE!".

"erm...I know that I might dress and look like a dude but seriously? Aren't you overreacting a bit?" the whitenette sweatdropped and sent a confused look over to the headphones guy, wich seemed to be the most reasonable of the group. He only shrugged and smiled lazily.

"-IS SHE SERIOUSLY NOT A DUDE? I MEAN LOOK AT HOW SHE/HE DRESSES!" the ainu continued to yell, 'seriously if he doesn't shut up, In the next few seconds im'a castrate him with a spoon' the whitenette thought as she watched the scene. Now the Chinese tried to calm the ainu down, but it only resulted in those two getting into a loud mouthed fight.

"OKAY! WILL YOU PLEASE JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP?" the girl had finally had enough, she walked up to the two yelling boy's and lightly hit the Chinese and the ainu on their back heads.

"IF IM SO MUCH FUCKING TROUBLE THEN JUST LET ME LEAVE! Geez, why is everyone so irritating today!" the whitenette yelled irritated, 'first nii-san disappears and now some freaking irritating hobos pop up! What's next, huh? A freaking monkey king?'.  
The Chinese and ainu rubbed the back if their heads and looked surprised at the girl (trough the Chinese mostly looked annoyed and pissed).  
"ah, don't worry! They fight all the time" headphones replayed happily and flashed another lazy smile at the girl.

"erm...right..."

"why did you hit me?" the Chinese grunted angrily and crossed, yet again his arms over his chest (he let his spirit companion, Bason if the girl had heard right, a old Chinese warlord, carry his suitcase).

"well, mister pyramid head, I hate these little pretty fights when you just yell at each other, it's irritating and it's giving me a headache." she growled back at the Chinese and also crossed her arms over her chest.

"...pyramid head?..." the ainu looked surprised, but he was barely able to keep his laughter in. Wich made the whitenette smile evily, yes, she was a sadist.

"yes, pyramid" she stated calmly and placed her hands above her head so that they built an invisible pyramid.  
The girl could see the Chinese clench his fist and if possible, his expression got even angrier.  
_"shiki-chan, please don't try to make new enemies when we haven't even boarded the plane..."_ the girl shrugged a bit as she heard her spirit ally's soft voice echo in her mind. Her spirit`s voice seemed to always manage to give her goosebumps, it didn't matter where they where.

"erm..yeah, maybe I should get going..." she half-laughed half-stuttered and turned around, 'yeah, I know Kuro, but...I get easily...agitated...I thought you knew that.' she thought and a sight escaped her lips. _"yeah, you'd think I'd get used to it huh?"_ Kuro, the girl's spirit ally replied with a chuckle.

The girl, Shiki, waved at the boys behind her and began walking away from them, pouting because of the fact that her spirit ally had yet again managed to surprise her and give her goosebumps.

"hey! Why don't you sit down and eat with us? We got an extra teriyaki." Shiki heard headphones say from behind her, she could imagine him smiling that bright and lazy smile again. And true enough, when she turned around again the boy had that smile pasted across his features, Shiki didn't know why but that smile calmed her down and made her want to smile back, of course she didn't, she would only ever smile happily to her brother and his girlfriend sometimes.

"nah, thank you for the offer but im not hung-" Shiki, however, got interrupted by a low growl that came from her stomach, 'damn treacherous stomach.'.

"it seems that your stomach disagrees." the Chinese smirked as he saw her blushing slightly out of embarrassment at her stomach's betrayal.

"c'mon, why don't you join us?" headphones asked again as he and the rest of the boy's made themselves comfortable under the shade of the shag's roof, the Chinese and Elvis by a wooden table and the ainu and headphones on the grass.  
'damn that grin of his' Shiki thought and sat down infront if them, legs crossed and pout still on her face.

"here, take some chips!" headphones smiled at Shiki and handed over a bag of french fries from McDonald's, 'didn't they say that they had an extra teriyaki, not chips? Ah, well, bless McDonald's and their mistakes with extra menu's' Shiki shrugged and gratefully accepted the small red and yellow bag.  
'i just hope they aren't poisonous, Kuro, if they are you're gonna gave to heal me, ya hear?' Shiki jokingly commented and she could hear a sight echo in her mind. She and her spirit ally had this weird connection that made them able to read each others thoughts, it was creepy at first to her but Shiki had gotten used to it over the years, plus it was a valuable asset when she had to fight, it was like having an extra pair of eye's.

"oh, I'm Yoh, by the way" headphones voice snapped Shiki from her thoughts and she turned her head to face him, "it's nice to meet you." he calmly said and flashed another smile, 'i swear, if I ever meet a person nicer than...Yoh, was it? I'ma eat my pants!'.

"Shiki's the name, and you three?" Shiki turned to the rest of the boy's and the ainu was the first to reply.

"I'm Horohoro!"

"Ryu, nice to meet you!" the 'Elvis' flashed a smile at the girl and she shrugged in response.

"Ren." the Chinese said, still with an angry and irritated expression on his face, 'is that guy ever happy?' Shiki thought and took a bite of a french frie.

A couple of minutes went by and Shiki became quite close with her newfound friends, she learned that Yoh had a fiance ("no way! You're only fourteen!") and that Horohoro was indeed an ainu and his dream was to plant a field of butterbur. Shiki also learned that Ryu didn't know that he was a shaman until Yoh made him realise that he had shamanic powers, that after he had been possessed by a vengeful spirit, who now was surprisingly his spirit ally. During the time that passed, Ryu had also (to Shiki's horror) managed to 'fall in love' with Shiki, he called it that he had managed to uncover her inner beauty and looked beyond her tomboy:ish outer, but as he spoke, Shiki had hit him in the head, hard, and he fell to the ground unconscious. He then woke up after a couple of minutes and didn't remember a thing, the group broke into a laugh after that (-Shiki).

"so, what's gonna happen now?" horohoro questioned after a while of silence since no one seemed to know what to talk about.

"yeah, what do they have planned for us?" Ryu joined in and crushed the can he had recently been drinking from.

"and why this place?" Yoh asked with a shrug.

Shiki only 'hm':ed in response, she had this nagging feeling in her stomach that something was about to happen. 'of course something's about to happen! A new shaman king or queen is to be selected, baka!' she scolded herself mentally at her stupidity, yet, she somehow knew that the nagging feeling wasn't about that.

"why..."

"this base?"

"We'll have to figure it out."

"hm..."

_"Shiki! Someone's coming!"_ the frantic and echoing voice of Kuro snapped Shiki out of her thoughts. She was just about to ask her ally what she ment when a voice that made her skin crawl spoke.

"amateurs, only amateurs would get themselves so worked up over this."

Shiki's eye's widened, how come she hadn't noticed this guy before? For goddsake, she can sense furyoku!  
_"Shiki, stay calm and don't do anything reckless, this guy is strong."_ Kuro said calmly and Shiki could feel her necklace (Shiki's medium) heat up against her chest, preparing to attack if needed.  
Shiki turned her head towards the source of the voice, a pissed expression that could compete with Ren's stuck on her face.  
The owner of the voice wore a very light brown poncho and loose double pants, he was in about Shiki's age and he had brown long hair and brown eye's, he looked a bit like yoh and had this irritating smile...no it was a grin, a mocking grin pasted across his face.

"what the fuck do you want?" Shiki shot at the guy, she didn't like him (mostly because she hadn't managed to sense his furyoku). He was practically mocking them without even doing anything and it pissed Shiki off.

"I agree, this us a private conversation, you looking for a fight?" Horohoro seemed to be just as pissed as Shiki and was glaring draggers at the newly entered guy, 'if looks could kill...' Shiki thought but quickly turned back to the long haired boy as she heard him chuckle.

"no, but it sounds like you are, don't be that way..."

Something big and red suddenly appeared infront if the group and only a second later a big fist hit Horohoro in the stomach. His back hit the pillar behind him and the impact was so powerful that it broke in three pieces.  
Shiki's eye's flew wide open, an inch more to the left and she would've been hit, 'bastard.'

"it's not nice Horohoro."

Shiki immediately darted up from her sitting position and clutched her necklace. It was warm against her naked palm but she didn't bother, her attention was at the thing behind the 'Yoh look alike' infront of them.  
It was big, red and almost had the shape of a human, yet it was so surreal that it was impossible to be anything near human species.

"HOROHORO!"

"WHAT IS THAT THING? IT'S HUMONGOUS!"

Shiki sent a swift glare at the attacker and walked over to Horohoro who was clutching his stomach and trying to regain a steady breath.

"that's spirit of fire. Much unlike me, he has a bad temper and doesn't hesitate to attack, so be careful how you speak to Hao the future king!" the boy, apparently named Hao said and Shiki could practically feel him grin mockingly again.

"Don't fuck around bastard! No fucking way you're gonna be king!" Shiki yelled out of anger and turned around, back facing Horohoro and deadly glare directed at Hao.

"hm?" Hao turned his gaze to Shiki with a questioning look.

"You heard me!" Shiki retorted angrily and crossed her arms over her chest again. This guy was just pissing her off more and more.

"hmph, agreed, that's rather presumptuous. You'll never be a king." Shiki had almost forgotten that Ren even was there until he spoke. It surprised her that she heard a tone of mock in his voice. Shiki risked a swift glance at the Chinese and saw that he had called forth Bason and held a spear in his left hand. The suitcase lay wide open on the grass beside him and his mouth formed a mocking grin.

"BECAUSE YOU'RE GOING TO DIE RIGHT NOW!" Ren wasted no more time and charged at the fire shaman with over soul active.

Hao however seemed to have expected the move and before Ren could even get a metre close to him he let the fire spirit lift him up to avoid the attack.

"still on a hothead, eh, Ren?" Hao chuckled softly as Ren hit thin air where the fire shaman stood just moments ago.  
'how the heck did he know both Ren and Horohoro's name's? They clearly don't know the guy...' Shiki wondered mentally but she never broke her alertness. One more wrong move, and she would not hesitate to attack.

"Didnt you learn anything from going home?...or are you just angry because your friend got hit?".

Shiki wondered for a brief moment what Hao meant but quickly dismissed the thought, it was none of her business. And it probably didn't have anything to do with the current situation.

"I don't know what the fuck you mean, but, regarding Ren's expression, you're not supposed to know that shit, it has no fucking shit to do with you!" Shiki yelled at the attacker. Her temper was rising to a dangerous level but Hao only chuckled at her retort, 'the fucking nerve of him!'.

Hao's attention turned to Shiki once again, he didn't however smile like he was some godly creature as he did to Yoh and the others, he instead, smiled amusedly, as if she was a comic relief character from some cind of soap opera or anime. Shiki clenched her fist tightly and almost bit her lip to not attack the wery same moment that smirk had crawled up on his face and mocked her again.

"and what the fuck's with that smirk of your's anyway? If you keep smiling like that it's gonna get fucking stuck!" she retorted angrily.

"my, what a language, hm, Shiki-san?" Hao smiled at her, but his eye's looked serious and she noticed that he was studying her closely, wich made Shiki feel uneasy. It felt as trough those eye's could stare right into her soul and it wasnt a pleasant feeling.

"what the fuck? I can swear how much I fucking want! And for fuck's sake! Can you stop that!" Shiki growled and clenched her fist harder "just leave us the fuck alone!"

"again with the language, what a sailors mouth." He flashed another smile but Shiki didn't manage to reply, for another, but unknown female voice cut her off.

"Hao-sama? Haven't you had enough fun for now? We'd better to get back to the plane."

A big group of shamans appeared behind the shag's corner and walked up to the fire shaman. Hao smiled and nodded swiftly and then turned to Yoh, completely ignoring Shiki and her deadly glare.

"Yoh, I came here today because I liked what I saw in your last match, you have potential and you'll make a fine servant just like them..." Hao motioned to the group that stood infront of him like a protective barrier. "do your best to survive, so that you can serve the future king."

Shiki couldn't belive her ears, who the heck did this guy think he was? He stormes into a private conversation, attacks Horohoro, and tells Yoh he would make a fine servant? Shiki growled under her breath as the irritating thoughts flashed trough her mind. 'And what's up with that know it all attitude?'

Hao was about to turn around and leave the stunned shaman group there and then when he heard the quiet growl from the only girl in the group. He smiled satisfactorily to himself and turned his head towards the girl again.

"oh, and Shiki-san, try to survive you too, because you've caught my interest...you should be honored."

And with that he left in a sea of flames. Leaving a puzzled Shiki and a stunned group of boy's to pounder his words.

**A: so, was it good? Bad? You chose! Oh, and please review!**

Shiki (oc): *storms into A-black's room with angry expression* WHAT THE HELL! THAT WAS HAO? A-BLACK COME TO YOUR SENSES! HE'S A TOTAL JACKASS!

A: erm...yeah...until next chapter...if im alive...


	2. Chapter 2

**Left and found: Chapter 2, separation, plane and fall.**

**A: yay! Chapter 2 up! but its shorter than the last one...**

**Shiki: you are so lazy, do you know that...? You could have gotten it done earlier...**

**A:...you're not angry anymore?...**

**Shiki: heck yes I am, my throat is just sore from the yelling!**

**A: I sometimes think you are worse than Anna...**

**Shiki: oh, I can be much, much worse, believe me... ***

**sending evil and sadistic look at A-black***

**A: O-o**

**Shiki: Haha! Your expression! Hilarious!**

**A: please, just get on with the disclaimer...**

**Shiki: ...I don't get why you have to do the disclaimer, I think everyone gets that you don't own Shaman king, only your oc's and part of the plot...**

**A: well...**

"that freaking jackass! The next time I see that shitty excuse of a shaman im gonna freaking break all his bones!" Shiki exclaimed and kicked the poor can that lay infront of her. The small group (Shiki, Yoh, Ryu, Horohoro and Ren) where about to board the plane that would take them to America where the second round of the shaman fight would be held. However, their minds where somewhere else. Minutes had passed since the incident with Hao and his gang but Shiki hadn't calmed down a bit. Since Hao disappeared in that sea of flames Shiki had done nothing but to curse and kick things that where in her way.

"calm down Shiki-san. It's not like you can do anything about it now anyway." Yoh said and sighted. He and his friend's had had to endure her swearings for the past half of an hour and Ren was beginning to get a bit agitated.

"yeah, calm down. We're all still angry, okay maybe not Yoh, but it'll all go over, besides, the next time we meet we'll kick his butt, you can count on it!" Horohoro said enthusiasticly and grinned.

"so, now please stop that swearing!" Ren remarked with a grunt.

Shiki put her hands in her jeans pockets and stopped in her track for a moment.

"I'm sorry...I'm just so worried about my brother and added to the irritation with Hao. I'm just getting so agitated" Shiki said and sent an apologizing look at the boy's behind her.

Shiki hadn't managed to find her brother and decided to stay with Yoh and his group instead. It was not like her brother would be unnecessary worried, he knew that she was strong and that she was more mature (if a bit short-tempered) than himself. Shiki however was a bit worried, her big brother was a bit childish and could easily get distracted, thank the gods that his girlfriend was mature enough to take care of both herself and Shiki's brother.

Yoh flashed a smile and nodded understandably.

"no, worries, Shiki-san."

"yeah!" Horohoro agreed.

"Don't fret dear Shiki-san! You can come to me and cry your concerns away!" Ryu beamed and a vein mark started pulsing on Shiki's temple.

"Shut up Ryu, or I might just take my anger out on you."

To Shiki's surprise she heard Horohoro burst out laughing and as she looked behind her she saw that Ryu had, so to say, turned to stone, Ren looked irritated and Yoh was grinning like mad. Shiki didn't notice, but she smiled at the scene infront if her, she couldn't remember the last time she had this much fun with other people than her brother and his girlfriend. It surprised her that it made her feel at ease and it was strange because she hadn't been able to feel that way in years.

"wow, you're smiling!" Shiki snapped out of her thoughts as she heard Horohoro's surprised voice. "you're actually smiling! Not grinning, smiling!"

Shiki's smile immediately wanished from her face as the ainu spoke.

"aw, why did you stop? You looked cute when you where smiling." Yoh said and grinned again. Shiki had to fight down a blush that threatened to emerge at the comment, it was not as if no one had ever called her 'cute' before, but that was ages ago, before she had gone tomboy-ish and curse at everyone that irritated her.

"erm..."

"oh, look we're boarding!"

Yoh beamed at the plane behind Shiki, and as she turned around she saw that he was right, the patch had indeed opened the plane entrance and shamans where now boarding.

Unluckily enough for Shiki, the pushing and pressing shamans that where eager to board managed to somehow separate Shiki from Yoh and his friends. And in the end, Shiki found herself sitting in a Plane seat on the second floor of the jumbo jet and no idea where her newfound friends where.

'this sucks, ducks' Shiki sighted as she sat in her seat and let her gaze wander around, searching hopefully for any sign of the brown headed shaman with headphones and his friends. Unfortunately without any luck.  
Shiki let out another sight, closed her eye's and returned to her thoughts.

'just my luck, finding new friends and then losing them again'

A couple of hours went by and Shiki was beginning to get a bit bored. She had small conversations with Kuro (mentally), irritated her neighbor shaman and tried to meditate but soon, the restlessness took over.

_"it's okay if you sleep you know, you didn't sleep much yesterday..."_ Kuro's voice echoed in Shiki's mind as her eyelids began to waver.  
'but...what if something happens? You know how much of a heavy sleeper I am...' Shiki replied, yet she could barely hold her head straight because of the tiredness.

_"don't worry, I'll wake you, even if I have to zap you with electricity."_Kuro replied jokingly and Shiki let out a chuckle.

'...well, good night then...'

**_-time Skip!-_**

_"SHIKI! Wake up! We're falling! The second part of the shaman fight has already started! WAKE UP!"_

Shiki's eye's flew straight open, 'we're what?'.

_" you're awake!"_Kuro's frantic voice echoed in the girl's mind as she began to look around to try to figure out what was happening.

The first thing she noticed was that the seat was gone, but as she looked around, she also noticed that it wasn't the only thing. The whole plane had wanished.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK! WE'RE FUCKING FALLING!" Shiki screeched as she looked down, there was no floor, no ground to stand on, only air, air and more air. Shiki could only barely make out the ground below and of what she saw of it, it looked like a canyon, and it was approaching fast, 'not good, SO not good!'.

The screams and yells from the shamans all around Shiki seemed to make it almost impossible for her to even hear her own thoughts, the plane must've just disappeared since it seemed that all of the shamans still where in a shock-state and no one had tried using their over soul yet.

'okay, we should try over soul, but I've never thought of trying to fly with it...' Shiki thought as she took another glance downwards and her eyes began to water, 'its going so fast!'. Shiki didn't like heights that much and therefore had never even laid a thought of trying to fly, it certainly seemed like a bad idea that she hadn't now.

_" don't worry, I can fly, Shiki, you just have to push more furyoku into the raven over soul so that I become bigger."_Kuro answered.

Shiki took another glance down and nodded approvingly and bit her lower lip, this was not going to be easy.  
However, before Shiki could even do the integration, she felt a big furyoku wave wash over her and as she took a glance behind her, she saw that almost all the shamans had thought of the same solution as herself, they had activated their over soul's and where now flying away, or trying to land safely.

'wow, they're not as stupid as I thought' Shiki thought amusedly and activated her over soul.  
The necklace began to glow feintly red and a moment later it had taken the form of a normal sized and very much alive black raven with bloody red eyes.

The raven let out a croak and clung onto Shiki's left lower arm, it hurt a bit when Kuro's talons dug into the flesh of her arm but the pain went away just as fast as it came.

"so, now to making you bigger before I hit the ground and die." Shiki said jokingly and grinned.

Shiki closed her eyes for a second, to calm her senses so that she would be able to do concentrate as much furyoku as possible into her over soul, and as Shiki opened her eyes again she had a determined yet cold look in them.

As Shiki let her furyoku flow into Kuro's over soul form, she felt at peace, like time had stopped for a moment. She could still remember the first time she did her over soul, it had been the happiest day of her life when she found Kuro locked inside a cave behind her family's house and unintentionally freed her.

When Shiki was done transferring furyoku, the raven had grown to trice the size of a normal one and before Shiki could fall further down, Kuro catched her.  
Shiki landed with a soft 'thud' in the silky feathers of Kuro's back and as she opend her eyes again, from having closed them at the impact, all she could see was black, she had landed on her stomach with face buried in the pitch black feathers.

"it worked! Thank Kami-sama!" the girl exclaimed happily as she rolled over to her back and thanked Kuro mentally.

_"of course it worked, you're the future shaman queen! You can't really go dying now, right?"_Kuro laughed and began to beat with her wings to get higher up again.

"thanks, again, you are certainly the best spirit ally a shaman can have..." Shiki relied (she didn't bother to do it mentally) and rolled over to her stomach again and hugged Kuro's feathery body.

Kuro however didn't reply, she stayed silent and continued to fly north, further and further away from the few shamans that where still falling.  
Shiki had thought for a moment of maybe helping them, but she doubted that the patch would appreciate it and if they weren't strong enough to survive this, they certainly weren't strong enough to survive the second round of the tournament.

"oh, by the way, what actually happened? I remember falling

asleep on the plane, but then I wake up to you yelling frantically that we're falling and that the second round of the tournament had already started..." Shiki asked after a while of silence.

_"the plane, was in fact an over soul and it was all part of the patches plan. They disabled the over soul when we where somewhat close, yet far away from patch village and if we can't find the village within three months we are disqualified."_Kuro replied Shiki mentally.

Shiki sat up and crossed her legs.

"so, they just dropped us? Like 40,000 foot over a canyon? Those bastards!" she exclaimed half jokingly, half angrily and smiled slightly.

_"well, when we reach the closest city we'll have to ask for directions to patch village or at least find some lead to where it is. I have a feeling that it's north trough."_Kuro stated calmly and her raven form let out a croak.

"yeah, but if we find a forest in between, let's make a stop there." Shiki said and stretched her arms.

_"okay..."_

**_-time skip!-_**

The hours went by with the the pair occasionally thinking about the same things, 'what's gonna happen now?', 'will Yoh and the others make it?', 'if we meet that jackass again, will we be able to beat him?' or 'is brother okay?' but no more words where uttered.  
Nothing but Kuro's wing beats and Shiki's soft could be heard and eventually Shiki fell asleep, dreaming about a clear sky and a smiling brother.

**A: no Hao in this chapter! :'(**

**Shiki: Lucky!**

**A: ...I'm gonna ignore you now.**

**Shiki: what? Why?**

**A: see you next time, and don't forget to review!**

**Shiki: you really are ignoring me!**

**Obs! here´s a picture of how shiki looks**! .com/?qh=§ion=&global=1&q=shiki+colored+oc+shaman+king#/d516hr5


	3. Chapter 3

**Left and found: chapter 3, Fight!**

**A: third chapter Yes! And team hanagumi's gonna be in this chapter! I really like them, even if they're on Hao's side and kill people...  
Oh, and I'm also gonna feature team lily from the anime, I think they're funny and they will really irritate Shiki, that's gonna be fun...**

Shiki: what's that last part? Who's gonna irritate me?

A: that's gonna be a surprise!

Shiki: Ha! I got you to talk to me! You've been ignoring me since the last chapter, but now that's over, I win!

A:...damn.

Shiki: anyway, A-black-san does not own any shaman king characters or plot. She only owns her oc's and part of the plot, on with the story!

Almost a month had passed since Shiki and the other shamans had been thrown off the over soul jumbo jet, but unfortunately Shiki hadn't made any progress on finding the patch village.  
She had stopped in a couple of villages and asked for directions to patch village but none of the humans seemed to even know that there was a place called that. Shiki had even, as a last resort tried to ask some of the animals she met, (it was another strange power that shiki got from Kuro, to be able to talk to wolf's, dogs, crow's and ravens) but no success, all they bragged on about was food or some dumb thing they'd just seen, 'really, dog's are so stupid...' Shiki thought after she had tried to ask a chihuahua about the way, but the chihuahua only yelled on about a duck (A/N haha, me and my strange mind...).  
The only helpful information she got out was from a crow in an old western graveyard.  
The crow had talked about a village in stone that felt strange, but as Shiki asked where, the crow only answered that it was red stone all around and up in the north, wich didn't help much since she was somewhere in the lucky mountains and there was prairie everywhere.

One thing that worried Shiki however was that she hadn't met one single shaman under the whole time she had been flying/walking around in search for the village, and that didn't feel like a good sign to her, there where supposed to be at least a thousand or more shamans in this tournament, surely she wasn't the only one who hadn't managed to get to the village yet, right?

"this sucks, right Kuro?" Shiki sighted and took a gulp of her soda. She sat on the still morning damp grass and her back rested against a tree, eyes closed and a light smile resting on her lips.

The pair had decided to take a break from the searching as they saw a forest just a couple of metres ahead of them, it seemed cool and shaded from the sun. And in the middle of the forest, Shiki had found a comfortable spot under a big oak to sit by.

_"what does, Shiki?"_ Kuro asked and tilted her raven head to the side in an asking manner.

"that we can't fucking find patch village! I bet nii already found it, with that great sense of direction of his." Shiki pouted and opend her eyes, oh, what she would do for a map or at least some lead right now.

_"yes, that certainly sucks"_ Kuro replied.

"yeah..."

_"it was good that we found this forest trough."_ Kuro spoke and Shiki flashed another smile.

"Yeah...yeah it was" Shiki replied and closed her eyes again, she always enjoyed relaxing in a forest or close up to a mountain, it felt as if she became one with the nature around her and for Shiki it was the most amazing feeling.

As the minutes went by, Shiki became more and more aware of someone or more specifically someones watching her, they had furyoku so Shiki knew that they where shamans, and although it was pretty low these Shamans where getting on Shiki's nerves. Why the heck did they spy on her?

"Oi! You people watching me! It's getting irritating, fuck off, if you please!" Shiki growled after another couple of minutes of being watched, even Kuro (all trough she was back in the necklace) seemed to be getting a little impatient for the silently watching shamans to vanish.

"ho ho ho ho! My you are a clever one, however you are unlucky to cross paths with us!"

Shiki growled at the overly sweet voice and opend her left eye irritatingly, 'weren't they the ones who spy'd on me?'.

Five women, no scratch that, four women and one little girl, stood infront of Shiki, over souls not yet active but their mediums where ready at hand.  
The women where slightly older than Shiki and all except for a red headed woman who held a sort of hammer in her left hand, where smirking at Shiki, the red head just looked angry.  
The woman beside 'angry face' was seemingly the leader and she had a four armed pipe in one of her hands. She was blonde and wore a classy violet dress.  
The other three had the lowest furyoku level of the group and therefore Shiki didn't pay much attention to them, but she did notice that one of them wore round glasses, another seemed to have an attitude that just screamed 'i-think-i-am-the-strongest-here-and-therefore-all-boys-should-treat-me-like-their-goddess'.  
'no, all of them have that cind of look' Shiki corrected mentally as she scanned them wearily.  
The little girl, however, seemed like the most responsible of the group and Shiki wondered for a brief moment what such a little girl was doing in the shaman fight as she saw their oracle bells.

"what do you want?" Shiki questioned and closed her left eye again.

Shiki let a frown escape her lips as she heard more giggling and 'ho ho ho':ing

"we are the notorious lily five! The queens of the shaman fight! We-"

"I'm asking you again lady, what the fuck do you want?"

Shiki could almost feel the girls surprise in their auras as she had interrupted the group's leader.  
As Shiki tried to go back to relaxing she heard them whispering to each other, something about 'sailors mouth', 'should we still try?' or 'i wanna fight', neither of these 'comments' interested her much, it didn't matter as long as they didn't know the way to patch village and after a couple of minutes the 'lily five' as they called themselves, seemed to have come to a conclusion (about what Shiki didn't know).

"ho ho ho ho! you really have a sailors mouth, girl, but as I said before, you where unlucky enough to cross paths with us, you will now give us the information about patch village that we need and we won't have to hurt you".

Shiki couldn't help it, the laughter that erupted from her throat was sadistic and dark, no doubt she sounded like a maniac. Shiki didn't even bother to open her eyes to know that the 'lily five' was staring at her, probably thinking that she was mad and needed to go to asylum, it wouldn't be the first time and certainly not the last.

When Shiki's laughter had died out she returned to her cold but fierce self, she let a growl escape her lips and her attention turned back to the now terrified group of girls.

"I thought you would've learned something by spying on me for almost two hours, if I had any information, I would've been gone long ago, besides, you won't be able to force anything outta me even in a thousand years. Come back when your strong enough."

Shiki stood up and brushed off the dirt that had clang into her newly bought shorts and the lower part of her black t-shirt, she would not harm any of the female shamans, she rarely did nowdays, and neither would she like to fight them but if it would get unavoidable, she wouldn't hesitate, she needed to become Shaman queen, and nothing, especially not anything before the official fight started would pull her down. 'for nii, okaa, otou and Tenshi'.

"wait! You have to give us the information about patch village! We have to get there to become shaman queens! You can't stop us! We will fight if we have to!" the 'boys-should-treat-me-like-their-goddess' girl said and clenched her first and she seemed to forget Shiki's threat.  
The other girls of the group joined in.

"yeah! Ellie's right!"

"yeah! You can't scare us!"

"ho ho ho! We will not tolerate any threats!"

"you are idiots." Shiki stated and sweatdropped, she really hadn't meant to sound so threatening, it just came naturally to her. Whatever these girls had in mind, it was none of her business and they shouldn't drag Shiki into it.

"what did you say?" one of the 'lily five' growled but Shiki had already turned around and began walking away from the group, she couldn't relax anymore and she had to get on with the search for patch village, she couldn't waste anymore time.  
When Shiki began walking however, an idea crossed her mind and she turned back to the group.

"wait...if you give me a ride to the nearest gas station, I'll tell you what I know." Shiki said and smirked inwardly, she wouldn't say what she would tell them and she really needed a ride.

"okay! Lily five we will give this girl a ride and she will tell us about Patch village! Ho ho ho ho!" the leader said enthusiasticly but Shiki could still feel the slight fear in her and the others had the same feeling, 'pathetic, I haven't even used my over soul, yet they're so easily convinced' Shiki thought and shrugged. It really didn't come naturally go her to be cind, especially to strangers and if she was then she would have a good reason to do so.  
The thought made her also think for a moment about Yoh and his friends, sure she had acted a bit cold towards them, but she had softened up after a while and somehow she became friends with them. God she missed them.

"you coming...?"

The voice of one of the 'lily five' snapped Shiki out of her thoughts and she saw that they had driven their red mini-bus toward her and all of them where now waiting patiently for her to board on the road just a few feet ahead of her.

"oh...yeah, sure..."

Shiki climbed into the car and they where off.

** -time skip!-**

The hours had passed surprisingly fast for Shiki as she sat in the car with the 'lily five' and

waited for a gas-station to show up.  
Every now and then Shiki found herself thinking about what was gonna happen when she was shaman queen. She, of course wanted to make earth a better place and also see to that the human's wouldn't destroy anything more than they already had, but she couldn't really go wander around and tell humans to forget civilization every day for five hundred years! 'oh, yeah I nearly forgot that...the shaman king/queen can choose how long they live up til five hundred years...man that's gotta be boring...' Shiki thought sadly, she wouldn't be able to bear watching her brother grow old and die while she stayed young, it would drive her mad, when she got shaman queen she would try to make her brother stay alive as long as she would.  
Shrugging the thought away, Shiki gazed out of the window beside her, luckily she had managed to get one of the seats that was directly beside a window, Shiki really hated small and crowded places. All trough it was a mini-bus, the lily five had packed it with so many bags and luggage that Shiki had to push herself against the window, not to get crushed by the gigantic bags of clothes.

An abrupt turn of the car, however, interrupted Shiki's thoughts and made her hit her head against the seat infront of her. The car stopped abruptly after the turn and Shiki flew yet again at the seat infront of her.

"what the fuck?" Shiki screeched and rubbed her forehead slightly, 'damn it, im gonna get a bruise there tomorrow'.

"hey, get outta the way! We're driving here!"

Shiki heard the leader of 'lily five' yell insults frantically at someone but she couldn't care less who it was, damn it, why hadn't she put the seatbelt on? Even Kuro had insisted on it, but oh no, she, Shiki Minatsuki, didn't listen to the million years old ghost who was at least fifty times smarter then her, she just had to rebel.

_"I told you so..."_ Kuro muttered and let out a sight.

'yeah, you where right, so what now? Gonna ban me all the cookie's?' Shiki joked mentally and continued to rub her forehead.  
Shiki was about to ask the 'lily five' or as Shiki liked to call them, 'noisy five' why they had turned and then stopped abruptly when she felt a furyoku pulse ahead of them. It was three shamans, of what Shiki could tell.  
Shiki frowned irritatingly and pulled the door beside her open. She felt slightly sick as her foot touched the ground, she had never enjoyed car rides and the abrupt turn hadn't helped in the least.

"oh, fuck..." Shiki growled and held into the door to not let her knees give in.

"who of you pathetic shamans is Shiki?" a feminine voice said lazily somewhere ahead of the car, Shiki however didn't look up to see who it was that was searching for her, she was occupied by trying not to puke.

"we don't know any Shiki!" the blonde leader, who's name Shiki learned was Sherona, yelled at the three shamans blocking their paths. She was leaning over the edge of her open window and her left hand rested loosely around the wheel. Shiki had to admit that she was a good driver, even through Shiki still felt sick when in a moving car. Shiki took another step away from the car, but immediately felt the sickening feeling in her throat and stomach.

"oh, damn it I feel sick..." Shiki growled, through it came out louder than she had intended and a split second later she found herself being stared at by all of the surrounding shamans.

"um...hi?"

"..."

"..."

"you're Shiki aren't you?" Sharona growled lowly.

Shiki turned her head slightly to get a good look on who it was that had made the mini-bus stop and in the middle of the road there stood three girls with irritated looks dominating their faces. The one that stood the closest to Shiki had short orange hair and violet eyes. She seemed to be in about the same age as Shiki and she wore white undershirt with black overall and boots. The girl reminded Shiki a bit of a witch with her broom in her left hand.  
The girl standing beside the 'witch' was at least eighteen (or more) years old and she was quite beautiful. She had long blue hair and she wore a black top and short jeans. The girl was also, to Shiki's irritation, smoking and if Shiki thought about it, that smoke just might be the girl's medium, since she didn't hold into anything else.  
The third girl also looked like she was about Shiki's age, she had long blond hair tied up in two high ponytails and the black dress she wore suited the gloomy look in her eyes perfectly. She clutched a worn doll in her right arm and Shiki could feel it's over soul pulse vibrating strongly.

"yeah...so what? I don't know these girls" Shiki replied cooley and clutched her stomach again. 'damn it, why do I have to get so easily travel sick?'.

"of course you don't, we have barely even met." the smoking girl said lazily and breathed out a puff of smoke.

"...so what do you want?" Shiki groaned irritatingly. She was still clutching her stomach with her left hand, even through the sick feeling was slowly fading away, thankfully.

"master Hao wanted us to test you" the 'witch' said and pointed with her free hand at Shiki, as if accusing her for a crime. She had a disgusted look on her face and her eyes where blazing with hatred.

"Hao...?"

"who's that?"

"I think I've heard the name before..."

The lily five whispered among themselves while sending suspicious looks towards Shiki, trough she couldn't care less, her attention was still by the three girls blocking their way.

"oh, really? Well what does the jackass want to test me for?" Shiki said cooley and crossed her arms, her stomach had now calmed down and the puke feeling that Shiki had had when she stepped out of the mini-bus was completely gone.

The cigarette girl growled under her breath and shot a deadly glare at the white haired Shaman infront if her, and she wasn't the only one, the 'witch' and the girl holding the worn doll where looking at Shiki as if she'd just puked.

"let's just get it over with, Hao-sama said that we could kill her if she was to weak..." the cigarette girl said warily and threw away the abused cigarette.

"you really shouldn't do that..." Shiki growled lowly and watched the cigarette girl light another one. The earth didn't need more poison, to Shiki it was enough with how much the humans where polluting it.

"quit the small talk, girl, Ashcroft! ATTACK!" the cigarette girl cried and Shiki was just barely able to avoid being hit by a lance from behind.

Shiki quickly glanced backwards to the thing that had attacked her and saw a knight armour, however Shiki didn't manage to scan the attacker more accurately because of another attack aimed at her stomach. Shiki dodged the attack easily and leapt back a few feet to gain distance between her and the attacker. She had to admit that the knight was fast.

"woa, that was close, ne, Kuro?" Shiki spoke mockingly and grinned mentally as the 'witch' also sent her over soul to attack. Her over soul was something similar to a skeleton doll with pumpkin head.

Shiki continued to dodge the attacks from the two over souls, and eventually the girl with the doll also joined in. The doll was, as Shiki had suspected, the girl's over soul and it was surprisingly strong for it's size. It was harder to dodge it's bullets than Shiki first thought and one bullet even managed to scratch Shiki's upper arm. But after a while, the dodging became quite a drag and Shiki decided that their little game was over.

"enough with the playing now, I'm getting bored and I still have a patch village to find." Shiki said and stopped in her tracks, just as the pumpkin doll aimed another attack. The skeletal doll hit an invisible wall when it was just a foot away from Shiki. The pumpkin doll continued to hit the invisible wall as if it's life depended on it, but it never got even a foot close to Shiki, much less harming her.

The three attackers could only stare as their over souls attacked the whitenette with no expense, hitting, kicking, slicing, stabbing and even trying to impale. But none of them even came close.

"how?"

"what's happening?"

"what's happening is that I used furyoku nullification, as I said, playtime's over." Shiki growled as answer and let her hand wander up to the raven necklace.

"what?"

"your the one that's playing around, die!" the doll girl exclaimed angrily and shot another ray of bullets, but they also hit the invisible wall and shiki didn't even flinch at the impact.

"Kuro, over soul, ancient form." Shiki said and the necklace began to glow faintly red.  
Big, pitch black legs suddenly began to materialize behind Shiki, then a waist, arms, chest and at last a head with horns. The creature that had emerged was an exact copy of the spirit of fire, only thinner and more feminine. Just like the spirit of fire, the creature had markings and signs all over it's body, tattoos, glowing red, like blood.

"how?..." the cigarette girl asked in almost a whisper, she became engulfed with shock and slight fear as she saw the creature materialize.

"that's impossible!" the 'witch' screeched frantically but she also radiated fear, just like her older...friend? Shiki didn't really know if they where friends, teammates yes, but friends? It didn't really matter for Shiki though.

"t-that thing is a monster!"

"let's get outta here! Sorry girl but our deal's off!"

Shiki had almost forgotten about the lily five until they spoke, apparently they where just as freaked out by Shiki's over soul as the three attackers. And before Shiki could intervene the group had started the engine of the mini-bus, slammed the door shut and waved their goodbyes. How they managed to do that in less than five seconds was a mystery to Shiki, however she felt a little betrayed at their sudden departure, they had a deal hadn't they? And calling Kuro monster, now that's just mean.

"YOU FUCKERS! I THOUGHT WE HAD A FUCKING

DEAL!"

Shiki's yelling didnt help, they had turned a left and hit the road again, trying to completely ignore the teen and her opponents. 'how can they be such cowards! It's not like I was gonna hurt them anyway!' Shiki thought angrily but she turned her attention back to her opponents, who still looked dazed at Kuro's gigantic over soul mode, that or they where just shocked that it looked so much like spirit of fire.

"...why does it look like Hao-sama's over soul...?" the doll girl spoke in almost a whisper, she had re-called her over soul and was now clutching the doll closely to her chest. She didn't look scared, merely angry and somewhat disgusted, but Shiki could feel anxiousness ooze from her aura.

"kuro let's get this over with...I'm tired and hungry..." Shiki said and half-ly ignored her opponents. But the moment she looked away, the three girls attacked again.  
What surprised Shiki the most was, when they had missed Shiki, they attacked Kuro's left arm and torso, and they even managed to slice off Kuro's arm.

"wow, that was unexpected..." Shiki mumbled and focused her furyoku on re-growing Kuro's arm while she also jumped back as the knight attacked her, aiming at her legs.

'well, at least they got a good tactic...' Shiki thought as the knight attacked Kuro after he missed. But as the knight came close enough, Kuro's left hand closed around the armour and crushed it.  
Tiny bits of metal fell to the ground as Kuro opend her hand again and Shiki smiled mentally, 'one down, two to go.'

A split second later, Kuro had gasped the other two over soul mediums in each of her hands and as Shiki motioned down with her hand, kuro crushed the mediums and the over soul became impossible to accomplish.

"you're out of furyoku and your mediums are broken, even if you can fix them, it's over" Shiki said and crossed her arms. She hadn't hurt them, she never intended to, all that had been necessary was to break their mediums and the fight would be over.

The three girls fell to their knees in defeat at the statement. All of them looked shocked and none of them where saying anything.

"y-you broke Chuck...y-you b-broke my medium..." the doll girl said and broke into a sob.

"erm..." Shiki hadn't expected any of them to cry, she had expected them to get angry, pissed even, "I can fix him if you want?" Shiki had never been good when it came to emotions, so she did the first thing that came to her mind, to repair their mediums.

_"you are an idiot, you know that Shiki-chan?"_ Kuro sighted and returned to her raven form.

"I don't even know why I'm doing this...damn, Yoh and the other's must've softened me up." Shiki growled lowly and bared her teeth at no one in particular.

The three girls and their spirits could only stare as the whitenette repaired the mediums with what was left of her furyoku. The doll girl had stopped sobbing and she was now clutching the 'witch's' wrist. They had expected Shiki to kill them, but they hadn't even gotten a scratch, not one bruise, and now she was even repairing their broken mediums.

"so all done, I would appreciate it if you don't attack me again, trough." Shiki said and walked back to the three girls, who still where on their knees and shocked by their defeat and the white haired shaman's behavior.

Shiki handed the pumpkin doll to the witch, the knight armour, (even if she doubted that it was necessary because the medium was smoke) to they cigarette girl and then the worn doll to the blonde.

"look, I'm sorry that I broke your mediums, but you where the ones that actually attacked, so we should be even now, right?"

The blonde continued to stare up at the whitenette even as Shiki spoke and handed over her doll, she didn't understand why the girl had fixed their mediums, why she hadn't hurt them but still won, it didn't make any sense to her, you cant really win if you don't kill your opponents, right?

"yeah...don't cry again? I really can't deal with this emotional stuff..." Shiki said and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment as she saw tears stream down the blonde's cheeks.

"why...didn't you kill us?" the cigarette mumbled after a while of silence.

"hm? Why should I? I wouldn't gain anything from that, besides, not all problems can be solved with killing..."

"but...we tried to kill you..." the witch whimpered and she also broke into a sob.

"no no no no! Don't cry, erm..I'll treat you chocolate! Wait..no erm...I erm...DAMNIT!" Shiki screeched frantically and turned her head back and forth, somehow trying to figure out what to do. 'Damnit! I dont know how to handle crying or emotional stuff'.

To Shiki's surprise, she head a chuckle from the cigarette girl and saw that she was smiling as she looked back at her.

"now I see why Hao-sama is so interested in you." She said and smiled up at Shiki.

"huh? ...what?"

"never mind...we will look forward to meeting you in the shaman fight, Shiki? But we will be stronger by then, you can count on it. But now we have a report to make, I hope we'll see each other again soon" the cigarette girl shrugged and smiled again. She stood up and dusted the dust of her shorts, she was about to turn away, together with the other two shamans, when Shiki interrupted again.

"wait,...I still dont know your names and could you please tell me if you know anything about the location of patch village? you see I have a tendency to get lost..."

"Im Kanna." the cigarette girl said as she lit another cigarette and turned away.

"Matti..." the 'witch' said and made an attempt of a smile, she still seemed a little dense about how Shiki had acted but the tears where gone and no trace except for slightly reddend eyes.

"Mari..." the blonde answered and clutched her doll tighter.

"and the patch village is in mesa verdede, I think we own you that..." the 'witch', Matti replied, she seemed to finally have snapped out of her daze.

"oh, thanks...I guess...well, don't go and die then, I really enjoyed the fight, we should do it again" Shiki said happily and waved as they turned around and began to walk away.

"yeah...maybe..." Kanna replied and Shiki swore she could've seen a slight twitch at the end of Mari's lips.

They disappeared just a split second later on a motorcycle that stood by the right side of the road, 'strange that I didn't notice that one before...' Shiki thought and turned the other way.

"now, where was that gas station again?"

**A: chapter done!**

Shiki: finally! 

**A: But no Hao in this one either *sight***

Shiki: ...you really are depressed by that arent you?

A: yeah, but don't worry, the next chapter's gonna be with Hao, many of the next chapter's gonna be with Hao.

Shiki: ...im not worrying about that, I'm worrying about my sanity if you don't put up at least a small blockade between your Hao obsession and this fanfiction...besides, you made me sound like some cind of psychopath when I laughed...

A: sorry...

Shiki: no prob'

A: see you guys in the next chapter!  



	4. Chapter 4

**Left and found : chapter 4, Mesa Verdede.**

**A: Next Chapter Yo!**

**Shiki: what's up with you?**

**A: I watched Soul Eater, Yo!**

**Shiki: that's wicked...**

**A: Yo!**

**Shiki: oookay...erm...AnonymusBlack does not own Shaman king, she does however own her Oc's and part of the plot. On with the story!**

"right...I would like to have...a cola and...no wait, just a cola"

"anything more?"

"no, just as I said, only a cola"

"right...here you go, that'll be 2.50."

Shiki handed the money to the blonde cashier woman and grabbed her cola. She walked over to a table at the far end of the room and sat down by a window. The gas station that Shiki found just a couple of kilometres away from where she fought with Kanna, Mari and Matti was small but comfortable, luckily for Shiki, the gas station had a little souvenir shop and a café to rest in and it was almost completely empty.

_"you...are really impossible Shiki-chan..."_Kuro's voice echoed in Shiki's mind as she took her first gulp of the cola.

'...I can't help it, I got thirsty and hungry, especially after that fight...but, I guess I have to skip the food, stupid sandwiches' Shiki replied and pouted.

They would now have to either get a ride, or fly with the help of Kuro's over soul again to get to Mesa Verdede in the small amount of three weeks, and, if the travel guide was right, it was fifteen miles from where she was now.  
'what a drag, now that I finally know where patch village is, it's so far away that I will probably have to fly there...' Shiki thought irritatingly and let her chin rest against her palm.

_"yeah, but if we fly non stop now, we'll be able to reach our destination in the amount of one day, if I fly fast enough.."_Kuro replied.

'yeah...I guess, but it takes so much furyoku that I'll almost be sick when we arrive...seriously it's not fun...' Shiki shrugged and took another gulp of her cola, thank god that she hadn't let her brother carry all their money or she would be dead by now out of starvation.

_"I guess..."_

'i miss my two baka's Kuro, why did nii-chan have to fucking vanish at the second round opening?' Shiki replied casually as she gazed out the window It looked so peaceful and untouched, the red canyons ahead of the road with it's engulfing prairie and the sky, just as jet blue as the oceans in Okinawa. Kami, she missed Japan, Shiki hadn't given it much thought until now, but she would never have thought she'd get so homesick, the blue oceans, the mountains, the cherry blossom in February, even the the crowded Tokyo streets in the late afternoon was itching it's way into her brain like a parasite searching for some emotions and want to hop into a plane and go strait home.

_"hey, you okay?"_Kuro asked and Shiki snapped out of her trance.

'oh...yeah, it was nothing...'

_"you miss home, don't you?"_

'yeah, but it's only because I miss nii-chan so much...well, I guess I'll see him later in patch village, right?' Shiki replied her guardian ghost, she really couldn't hide anything from this spiritual friend of hers.

Shiki wanted to say (or think) something else to the matter but she was interrupted by a loud noise from outside the café. It sounded suspiciously like a helicopter.

A few minutes later, the noise was gone and quiety lingered in the air once more.

'what the heck happened? That couldn't have been a helicopter, right?' Shiki asked herself and Kuro mentally.

_"I don't know"_

'if so, what the heck is a helicopter doing in the middle of no where?' Shiki thought let a growl escape her.

Shiki was just about to get up from her seat to leave, when she felt a furyoku pulse just outside the café.  
'...oh come on! For two months I didn't meet one single shaman and now they just pop out wherever I go? What the heck?' Shiki exclaimed mentally.

The furyoku pulse came from two shamans. One of them seemed to even be in Shiki's league and that was a bad sign if she was to fight again.  
Shiki felt the furyoku pulse get closer and closer, until they where just outside the door that went into the café.  
The door opend at the same moment Shiki turned her head towards the entrance. In walked four people, a elder man, about thirty forty, he looked like a business man and wore glasses, beside the man was a tiny boy, he was blonde and he looked, quite frankly like a coward.  
Behind the two males there where two girls, both in Shiki's age, and they where the two shamans that Shiki had felt the presence from. The strongest of the two had blonde hair and she wore a black dress that went just above her knees. She also carried a red scarf together with a blue pearl necklace around her neck and Shiki noted that those pearls had an enormous amount of reiyoku, but it still didn't quite match up to Kuro's.  
The other shaman had, to Shiki's amusement, pink short hair. She wore a white t-shirt and black loose pants. She also carried a heart shaped planchette hung over her shoulder and a sketchbook at hand.  
For a brief moment, Shiki and the blonde shaman locked eyes, amber staring into dark brown, but after a while Shiki looked back to the window beside her in defeat.

"Manta go buy me a coffee and something to eat" Shiki heard the blonde shaman say harshly and Shiki could see the tiny human nod absent mindedly from the corner of her eyes.

The blonde shaman slowly but determinedly made her way towards Shiki's (and Kuro's) table together with the pink haired girl, who only looked nervous.

'you think they know that I'm a shaman?' Shiki mentally questioned Kuro and took another sip of her cola.

_"yes, I think that at least the blonde knows...she is strong, you can feel it too right?"_Kuro replied and Shiki could feel the necklace give a small shake, Kuro was ready to attack again if needed.

"you're a Shaman."

Shiki turned her head towards the voice and met the amber colored eyes again.

"so?" Shiki replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and took a gulp of her cola again.

The blonde shaman sat down in the chair infront of Shiki and narrowed her eyes. She motioned for the pink head to sit beside her and took a glance at Shiki's necklace but then looked back into Shiki's eyes.

"I was just wondering..." She replied and shrugged.

"um...Anna-san...do we know this person?..." the pink head asked cautiously while nervously fumbling at her sketch book.

A 'no we don't' was all the girl replied with but Shiki had once again turned back to looking out of the window and didn't pay any attention to it.  
She didn't know why this girl was talking to her, or at least trying to, but it amused Shiki slightly to think that the blonde resembled herself of a couple of years ago and the name Anna came to sound familiar, but she didn't know where she had heard it.

"Anna-san...I got your coffee and a sandwich...but who is she?"

Shiki turned her head at the direction where the voice came from and saw the tiny human boy holding a tray with a coffee, two sodas and three sandwiches. He was glancing nervously at Shiki as he sat down the tray and occupied a seat beside the pink. The suit guy stood behind the boy like a protective older brother and he held a suitcase Shiki hadn't noticed before, he was also glaring at her suspiciously, it was clear that he trusted Shiki as much as one would trust a wanted murderer.

"She is a Shaman Manta, and she will help us find patch village so that we can find Yoh." The blonde stated calmly and Shiki immediately remembered where she had heard the name.

"You're Anna Kyoyama, Yoh's fiancée?" Shiki questioned alerted and she almost jumped up from her chair in surprise, of course the name had sounded familiar!.

"you know Yoh?" the fiancée asked surprised and stared into Shiki's eyes again with curiosity, through her expression remained immobile.

"yeah, we cinda met at the airport and became friends...he spoke about you very highly, through also like he was scared of ya'...said something about training of hell or something..." Shiki said and almost let a smile crawl upon her features as she remembered their talk behind that shag, well, before Hao appeared. 'what did Kanna say again? That he was interested in me? What the heck is that supposed to mean anyway, we don't even know each other...' Shiki wondered mentally but shrugged the thought away for the moment as she had other things to deal with, for instance why the suit guy still was staring with loathe at her.

"oh, training from hell, eh? He'll have a much harder time getting by with my new training program then..." Anna said and smiled with a smile that would scare jack the ripper to death, trough Shiki noticed that Anna was blushing slightly, even trough she was trying to hide it. Yoh had mentioned that it was an arranged marriage so Shiki hadn't suspected that Anna would really like Yoh in that way. Well, what a surprise, at least now Anna seemed to trust Shiki to a reasonable level.

"so, what's your name?" the tiny human, apparently named Manta asked as he opend his soda.

"Shiki"

"oh, so, how old are you?"

"14 but I'll be 15 in about two months." Shiki replied the tiny boy and crushed the now empty coca cola can with her left hand.

Shiki then remembered the pink headed girl and turned her attention to the very nervous girl, "I don't think I got your name?"

"eh? I-I'm Tamao..." the girl stuttered and looked down to her sketchbook again.

"so, you do know where patch village is, right?" Anna asked and took a sip of her coffee.  
Shiki could never understand how people could drink something so bitter, she had tried it once, but almost instantly spit it out.

"yeah, I actually won the information in a fight, it's in Mesa Verdede." Shiki replied, these guy's weren't in the shaman fight so she could tell them the information she had, besides, the blonde girl was Yoh's fiancée and she probably just wanted to cheer Yoh

on, even if it mostly was trough training. The only problem was the suit guy, Shiki didn't even know the guy's name and he kept glaring at her like she was some cind of filthy parasite. She didn't trust him.

"good, would you like to accomplice us there? I'm not sure I trust these travel guides so much..." Anna said and took her first bite of her sandwich, a split second later, she had a disappointed look on her face and she put down the piece of bread.

"disappointing, huh?" Shiki asked amusedly and Anna nodded in agreement.

"so are you coming with us? We have a helicopter so it'll be a quick ride, at most a day, right Manta?" Anna said and sent a questioning yet threatening glance at the boy and he nodded almost a little too enthusiastically.

'so it was a helicopter after all...' Shiki thought amusedly and threw the crushed can into a bin that stood behind the suit guy before answering.

"yeah, why not? I get easily travel sick but I think I can handle a helicopter..."

**-Time skip-**

"okay, I can't take a helicopter..."

Shiki clutched her stomach through the fabric of her t-shirt tightly as the helicopter continued to waver, shake and just plainly flying trough the air, it was a miracle that she had lasted seven hours without puking.

"we're almost there Shiki-san, then you'll be on safe ground again" Manta said and if Shiki would've seen his face she was sure he would have been smiling. He was sitting in the seat infront of Shiki with a sleeping Anna beside him and the suit guy, who's name Shiki still didn't know, sitting beside the guy flying the helicopter. Apparently Manta was the son of a wealthy business man and the heir of the company so they had gotten a own helicopter when they went to the U.S.A.

"oh, safe earth, I miss you..." Shiki said jokingly and she heard Manta chuckle over the loud noises that the engine made while flying.  
When the machine then shook violently again, Shiki had to close her eyes and cover her mouth to not puke.

"oh, Kami, it's worse than that car ride from before..." Shiki growled as a sickened expression crawled upon her features and she clutched her stomach tighter.  
Why did she have to be so height and travel sick? When she was flying with Kuro they had always stayed on low ground, trough out of human sight, and if Shiki came to feel sick, Kuro had always stopped for a while. No complications there, but car's, planes and helicopters was a no go in Shiki's dictionary.

"here we are." Shiki heard the suit guy say after another couple of minutes of flight and she risked a glance outside, luckily she sat by a window and could see the landscape perfectly.

The sight was stunning, the sun was soon to go down and therefore the sky had gotten a pinkish and orange shade across the horizon and Shiki was barely able to make out where the prairie ended and the endless sky began.

There was a ruin city in a cave under a big reddish cliff and the buildings where built in the same colored stone, as if it was carved into the rock.  
The few threes that surrounded the area where small and looked like bushes but they blended in perfectly with the red prairie and the soon to be last rays of light of the day.

'oh, god this is beautiful...' Shiki thought amazed by the sight as the helicopter slowly made its way towards the ground.

"Anna-san wake up! We're here!" Manta exclaimed and Anna mumbled something about 'wake me when we see Tom Cruise' and tried to return to sleep. However, Manta didn't let her and continued to try and wake her up with his exited yells.  
When Anna finally got enough of Manta's yelling she opend her eyes and slapped the tiny boy in irritation.  
No one wakes the Anna Kyoyama from her slumber.  
Shiki had gotten used to the little antics of Anna when she was irritated and even came to find it amusing sometimes as she slapped the tiny boy, trough Manta recovered quickly so no harm was ever done. Now at least she knew why Yoh had been scared of her.

When the helicopter however landed, Shiki was the first to sprint out of the vehicle and almost kissed the ground in appreciation of having safe ground under her feet.

"KAMI, I MISSED YOU EARTH!"

"wow, this is Mesa Verdede?" Manta exclaimed behind Shiki and as she turned back to the little group she saw that Anna also had stepped out of the helicopter with Manta and Tamao following close behind. Soon the, suit guy also walked out of the vehicle and dismissed the helicopter.  
Anna had put on a pair of sunglasses and twirled her red scarf around her neck and Shiki had to admit she looked cinda cool.

"we'll finally get to see-", "Where is he?" Anna interrupted Manta before he could end his sentance and scanned the area like she would see the brown hair and orange headphones if she looked hard enough.

"...Yoh..." Manta ended his sentance pathetically and sighed.

"wow, Anna-san, you look like a Hollywood star..." Tamao said as she spotted Anna and looked at her in admiration.

"of course, you'll never know when we might bump into Tom Cruise." Anna stated.

"NO WE WON'T!" Manta screeched frantically and Anna slapped him again.

"MANTA-SAMA!" the suit guy yelled worryingly and crouched beside the now unconscious boy.

"of course I know that, I was only joking. Now quit your napping so we can get going" Anna said and turned back to scanning the area when Manta reclaimed consciousness.

The entrance to the tourist area of the ruin was just a few feet ahead of the group and surprisingly enough, it was pretty much abandoned, Shiki had expected at least a few tourists.

"we've come all the way to America...to give Yoh the ultra senji ryakketsu. There's no time to lose." Anna said and took off her sunglasses.

Shiki looked back to the blonde, about to ask what the 'ultra senji ryakketsu' was, but changed her mind just as she was about to utter the words. It probably didn't matter in the long term anyway.

"according to Mikihisa...there should be a secret entrance around here" Tamao said shyly and looked nervously around in search for the entrance.

"heh...that Mikihisa is a shiftless vagabond." one of Tamao's spirit allies said.

The other shrugged and sent a sly smile towards the cave. "can we really trust what he says?"

"oh, shut up you creeps, your not helping." Shiki growled and glared at the animal spirits, wich shut them up.

'good, I've made them scared of me' Shiki thought amusedly and watched the pair hide behind Tamao.

"now's just the problem of finding that cave..." Anna said and sighed.

At that moment, Shiki felt the presence of another Shaman and immediately turned around to face the person, however, she was met with to faces instead of one as she had expected.  
'that's...'

"if you want, I can be your guide..."

'Hao...' Shiki ended her thought as she came face to face with the fire shaman.  
The others of the little group had also turned around and Anna was glaring at the guy as if he'd just killed.  
Hao sat on a big rock infront of them and he was accomplished by a little African girl, she was at most six years old and she wore a similar poncho to Hao's.

Hao wore the same clothes, or at least similar, as when they first met at the airport, light brown poncho, some cind of red and blue double pants, big earrings with a golden star on each and red fingerless gloves also with a star on each. 'this guy is obsessed with stars...' Shiki thought as she saw that his belt also had a big golden star on it.

"I know this area pretty well." Hao said and grinned smugly.

Shiki glared with all her might at the fire shaman as he continued to smile, she hadn't forgotten that this was the guy who had attacked Horohoro without any reason and wanted Yoh under his slavery (A/N no, not like that you perverts!).  
Shiki wasn't the person who easily held grudges, but this guy irritated her so much, she didn't even know why, (except for the fact that he could hide his furyoku presence so good that even Kuro had problems with sensing it).

Shiki heard Manta emit a squeak and as she glanced backwards she saw that both Manta and Tamao's spirit allies where hiding halfly behind a rock.

"it's like the air suddenly became electrified! Who is that guy?"

Manta was right, a damp tension lingered in the air and made it almost electrified as Hao had appeared. Shiki's necklace had begun to heat up the moment she saw Hao and Shiki thanked the gods that her spirit ally always was so alerted. Even if Shiki was more focused than her brother, she could still disappear into her thoughts and forget her surroundings for a while.

"what cute little amateurs" Shiki heard Hao say and she almost lost control of her glare in surprise, 'did he just call us cute?'.

"WHAT THE HECK" Manta exclaimed somewhere behind Shiki but she ignored it.

"what the fuck do you want?" Shiki growled and deepend her glare.

"it's nice to meet you too, Shiki-chan" Hao replied and smiled at the whitenette.

'did he just call me by chan? No way! That bastard!' Shiki thought frantically and let an almost animalistic growl escape her throat.

"it's Shiki to you."

"aw, why? I think Shiki-chan is cute" Hao replied with a chuckle and Shiki had to fight down a blush, 'how dare he?'.

"what the fuck do you want, Hao?" Shiki growled angrily and she could hear Manta inhale sharply.

"Shiki-san, did you just say Hao?"

Shiki didn't have to look back at the boy to know that he was frightened now, something about the name 'Hao' must've made him scared, even Tamao's guardian spirits seemed afraid of the fire shaman.

"yeah, what of it?" Shiki said nonchalantly.

"no, it can't be..." Tamao whimpered somewhere behind Shiki.

"but he sure looks like him...like Yoh I mean!" Manta said cautiously and Shiki could hear him gulp from behind her.  
What did they know about Hao, that she didn't?  
'damn, this is all so confusing...' Shiki thought but as she was to ask about the subject, Anna spoke instead.

"hmph.

You showed up sooner than we expected, Hao Asakura...this is the ultra senji ryakketsu. Are you so afraid of what will happen when I give this to Yoh?"

In curiosity, Shiki turned her head towards Anna and as she got a clear view of the girl Shiki noticed that Anna held a old book in her left hand, it was in about the size of a normal notebook but much, much older and it had a couple of spiritual seals across it's cover.  
There was one seal however, that Shiki noticed was broken, the furyoku of it still lingered on the book, but it no longer had any effect.

"what the..."

"ANNA THAT'S...!"

"IS THAT REALLY HAO? HE CALLED US AMATEURS!"

"okay! What the hell is happening? What's with that book?" Shiki screeched frantically as she finally got enough of not knowing what was going on. To Shiki's demise however, she got ignored by the both.

"oh...you've figured out that much then? Well done..." Hao said casually and continued to smile like there was no worry in the world, "so...you must be the person who defeated my Shikigamis, the future bride of Asakura Yoh, it's a pleasure to meet you..."

"so, I take it you don't want revenge?" Anna asked and grinned mockingly at Hao, who in his turn smiled back.

"no, I'm not such a petty man. In fact, I want you to deliver that book to Yoh"

"why the fuck would you do that?" Shiki asked curiously but the irritation in her voice was clear.

"to be frank, Shiki-chan, Yoh's still too weak. He'll never survive the battle that awaits him. But if he masters that book, then he'll become unimaginably more powerful. I want Yoh to get stronger quickly so he can assist me." Hao replied, yet again with a smile and Shiki growled lowly in irritation.

"assist you?" Tamao whimpered somewhere behind Shiki and she could hear Manta inhale sharply before the suit guy asked who Hao was. Yes, that Shiki would like to know too, sure she knew Hao's name, but that was about it. Anna and the rest of the group seemed to know something more however.

"I'll explain later, Tamurazaki. This is serious." Manta replied.

"why the fuck would Yoh join you? thats retarded and I'm pretty sure Anna agrees, just tell us where Yoh and the others are so we can get away from your ugly face." Shiki said proudly and crossed her arms. She was sure that Hao already knew where Yoh was, how she wasn't sure but she would get out the information about Yoh and then leave.

"SHE'S SO BRAVE!" Shiki heard Manta exclaim and she has to inwardly smile at the tiny boy's hyperness.

"hm, so you still wanna stick with Yoh and his friends, Shiki-chan?" Hao asked and jumped down from his rock to approach the whitenette. He continued to smile all the while.

"it's Shiki to you and yeah, what of it? I can't find bro, and they're the only other shamans I know here, so whats the problem with that?" Shiki said and glared at the slowly approaching fire shaman.

"then why don't you join me? I heard from Hanagumi that you are very strong and you have a very impressive furyoku amount I may add." Hao said and smiled again. He now stood less than a metre away from Shiki and if he reached out, he would be able to touch her with ease.

"I take it Hanagumi's Kanna and her group, but that doesn't matter, there's no fucking way I'm gonna join you, I'm gonna be Shaman queen and I wont let you, or anyone else stand in my way of it" Shiki stated calmly and continued to glare up at Hao, with demise, Shiki had noticed that he was a few centimeters taller than herself and she had to tilt her head slightly to be able to stare back into his eyes.

"what an attitude, I like you Shiki-chan, and you becoming shaman queen can be easily arranged. Yoh and his friends are already in the cave on their way into patch village, you'd better hurry up so that Anna can give Yoh the ultra senji ryakketsu. You are certainly a special girl, whenever you want help Shiki-chan, I'll be there for you." Hao said and pointed towards the ruin, he continued to smile even when Shiki uttered an animalistic growl and she slowly lifted her left hand.

"look...if you keep talking nonsense..." Shiki said and stared up into Hao's eyes with hatred, her necklace was shaking violently and as her left hand had moved over her head she slammed it down against Hao's cheek.  
However, there was never an impact, Hao had caught her wrist in a tight grip before her palm reached his cheek.

"it was stopped!" Manta screeched as Shiki tried to pry her wrist free from the fire shamans grip, unfortunately without any success and Hao slammed her back against a big rock behind them. Shiki gasped in surprise at the impact and barely noticed Hao's free hand being put beside her head, making it impossible for Shiki to escape as he still gripped her left wrist. She was trapped.

"Shiki-san!" Shiki heard Tamao yell in surprise and from the corner of her eye, she could see that even Anna looked surprised at the fire shaman's haste action.

"what a temper, Shiki-chan, but now I like you even more, it's a petty that we'll probably have to fight later in the tournament, you are definitely worthy of being my shaman queen." Hao said mockingly and leaned in closer to Shiki so their noses almost touched.

Shiki swore that her heart stopped for a moment, he was close, way to close, she could feel Hao's breath upon her face as if he was breathing through her. His breath smelled slightly like aches and grass and to Shiki's surprise she found herself rather liking the smell. But she pushed the thought away just as quickly as it emerged in embarrassment. No, she definitely did not like the smell of this shaman, period.

Shiki was blushing furiously, she knew she was, the intense heat upon her cheek and her pounding heart was enough to prove the matter. No boy except for her brother had ever been this close to her.

"get off, NOW" Shiki growled in the most dangerous tone she could muster but the tone combined with the furious blush only served to amuse Hao.

"now why would I do that? " He asked mockingly and grinned "this is way to amusing..."

That was the last straw for Shiki. She tried to wiggle free out of the boy's grip but when that didn't work she tried to slap him again, but with her free hand. Unfortunately without any result, if you didn't count for her other wrist also being captured in a iron grip and another wide grin crawling it's way up upon Hao's lips.

"I said, let me the fuck go!"

And Shiki did the one thing left she could think of.

Kick him where the sun doesn't shine.

Hao let out a low 'ough' and let hastily go of Shiki's wrists. Painfully, he doubled over and held a hand protective over the area that had recently been hit.

"HAO-SAMA!" The little girl, who Shiki almost forgot was there yelled and ran forwards the still crouching fire shaman.

"SHE HIT HIM!" Manta exclaimed.

"SHE KICKED HIM?" Tamao joined in in the yelling and Anna only growled.

"I would've done the same..."

"you forgot that I'm not your average girl who you can play around with as you like, jackass" Shiki growled and crossed her arms over her chest, her serious and irritated glare, however faltered as Hao smiled.

"yes, you are quite right, you're not an average girl, it was nice meeting you again but I really should get going, I also have other business to take care of." Hao said calmly but his expression showed that he indeed was in pain.

"h-hao-sama? Are you alright?" the little african girl asked cautiously and Hao nodded in response.

"yes, I'm quite alright opacho, but that was quite some kick, see you some other time, Shiki-chan"

And with that Hao disappeared in a sea of flames again.

**A: aaaaand, Chapter done! YO!**

**Shiki: oh, god, he was too close, too close!**

**A: oh, calm down, it wasn't that bad, was it? I mean Hao only pinned you against a rock and your noses didn't even touch, it's nothing!**

**Shiki: damn you, have you ever heard of personal space?**

**A: um...yeah, but...**

**Shiki: but what?**

**A: oh, nothing forget it...**

**Shiki: ...well, at least I managed to kick him where it hurts the most for guys...**

**A: yeah...poor Hao...**

**Shiki: who's side are you on!**

**A: I am on the all knowing, writers side!**

**Shiki: -_-**

**A: anyway, thanks to all you readers who are...well...reading this story and I hope well see you in the next chapter! Bye!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Left and found : Chapter 5, enter Chocolove, the suckiest joker in the world!**

A: yepp, yepp, another chapter, and now schools out! Happiest day in the whole year, except for Halloween of course...

Shiki: hm...

A: what's with you?

Shiki: I haven't seen nii-chan since you started this story...it sucks so much you wouldn't even be able to guess...

A: ...awww, you really care for him!

Shiki: shut up, its not as if you'd understand, you haven't been away from your sisters for more than two months!

A: heh...no I haven't, but you should get going with the disclaimer.

Shiki: yeah, whatever, AnonymusBlack does not own shaman king, she does however own her oc's and part of the plot. On with the story!

A/N: if any of you wonder what some japanese words that I use means, please note me.

The darkness was intense. If Shiki hadn't been so used to the black and if the small light from the torch that Anna had lighted wouldn't be lighting the way she would, without a doubt have walked the wrong way or at least walked into a wall in the cave.

Shiki still didn't know what Anna and the others knew about Hao, at first she had been so angry at the fire shaman that she had plainly forgotten the question, but when she remembered and asked about it, Anna said that it wasn't her war to fight, whatever that meant. Shiki let the question fall for the time being however.

"Shiki-san, do you really know where we are going?" Manta asked after that the little group had stumbled around in the darkness for a couple of minutes.

Shiki stopped in her track for a minute as the question registered in her mind.

"um...I was just following..."

"you are the one leading us, Shiki-san..." Manta stated casually and Shiki could hear Anna make a low growling noise in irritation.

"...right...but...somehow I know where I'm going, it may sound mad, but, it feels as if someones calling me..." Shiki said in almost a whisper and glanced down the stone stairs they where walking down on.

_"wait! You feel it too?"_ Kuro's voice echoed frantically in Shiki's head but before Shiki could reply Tamao's two guardian spirits appeared.

"we feel it too, it's like someone's calling us, reaching out for us..." fox said but his voice sounded distant, as if he was in another dimension. Not like him at all.

"but we can't feel anything, right, Anna? Tamao?" Manta said and of what Shiki could see, the two girls shook their heads in denial.

"then how come you can feel it, Shiki-san?" Tamao asked hesitantly.

"...I don't know...it might have something to do with my strange connection to my guardian spirit,...but...I really don't know..." Shiki replied in all honesty and began to walk down the stairs again.

No more words where uttered for a while as the group made their way further and further down the stairs.

As the time went by, Shiki felt that the calling feeling got stronger by the minute and as they finally reached the end of the stairs it was so overwhelming that Shiki almost had a hard time breathing.

"wow, this is amazing...this must be the real entrance to patch village..." Shiki breathed as she came face to face with another, but much smaller cavern inside the cave.

_" I can feel it too...it really is overwhelming..."_ Kuro said and Shiki's necklace gave a little shake.  
The necklace had been glowing very faintly ever since the group entered the cavern and with every step Shiki took, she could swear that her furyoku senses got stronger, when she had reached the beginning of the smaller cave, it felt as if she could feel every tiny little bit of furyoku in the area, even their exact measurements.

A long time ago, Shiki had asked her parents about this strange power of hers. To be able to sense furyoku. And her parents had answered that it was a special shamanic gift passed down their family, but even among the Minatsuki's it was rare. Not even Shiki's brother could sense furyoku.  
Shiki had then began to see that she wasn't normal, not even for a shaman.  
The fact had been proved at her first fight in the shaman tournament when she fought with a guy named Chao Dei Long, an arrogant Chinese who thought of ghosts as nothing but a tool.  
He couldn't sense furyoku, she could.  
He didn't even know how much furyoku he himself had and she knew exactly how much both if them had, she knew how the fight would turn out. And it followed Shiki's prediction.

"let's go then..." Shiki said and motioned for the rest of the group to follow her, but as she took her first step inside the cavern everything went black.  
_  
_

Was she dead?  
She couldn't see or feel her feet under her. Everything, every feeling, every emotion was gone.

She was blind.  
She was deaf.  
She was mute.  
She was unable to move.  
She was unable to smell.  
She was unable to feel.  
She was empty.  
She was helpless.

Suddenly there was two cat like eyes infront of her, staring into her own with glee as they scanned the girl. But they where only eyes, no body, no head, only two big round eyes with the same color as blood.

Had she regained her sight? Or was this just her own hallucination?

Sharp yellow teeth began to show underneath the crimson eyes, slowly forming a Cheshire grin and Shiki remembered where she had seen those red eyes and the sharp teeth.

She screamed.

""

The light returned to Shiki's eyes with a flash.  
She was back in the cave with Anna and the group, the surroundings where the same, dark, dusty and stony. The only light was from the torch that Anna held.

Shiki sat on her knees by the wall of the cave with her side resting against the hard rock. Someone was shaking her violently and Shiki's breathing had become rapid.

'those eyes...let it wanish, let it be gone for good...' Shiki's mind whimpered as she slowly tried to stand up again.

"Shiki-san? Are you okay!" Tamao's voice asked somewhere on the left side of Shiki and she had to close her eyes again so that her brain would manage to register the question at all.

"y-yeah, I just spaced out for a minute there, the great spirit must be close..." Shiki lied and got to her feet.

"don't lie, you saw a vision and it scared you beyond relief, you fell to the floor and screamed like a banshee, Shiki" Anna stated and crossed her arms, "when we tried to get closer to see what happened you put up a furyoku barrier and didn't let us come even a metre of range."

"oh..."

"Shiki-san what was it that happened?" Manta asked warily and Shiki noticed that he looked nervous, a bit scared even.

'he's not afraid of me is he?...' Shiki asked herself mentally before she answered Manta's question.

"just like Anna said before about what you know about that jackass, it's not your war to fight..."

Shiki turned around and began walking again. She knew wich way she was supposed to go thanks to the calling feeling but something bugged her greatly. Why had _his_ face, or more precisely eyes and teeth showed up again? It had been three years since she last saw those red circular eyes and she hoped and prayed to god that she wouldn't have to see them ever again, unfortunately she knew that she would eventually.  
One thing Shiki was certain of at any case was Anna and Manta trusted her less now, even if it just was a bit less.

The group walked in silence for the next couple of minutes and although Shiki's mind razed with thoughts and questions she stayed silent and continued to lead the way based on the calling feeling that just kept getting stronger.

_"hey...you okay? You know I saw everything you saw before, right? You can talk to me about it if you want...afterall I'm his..."_ Kuro tailed off at the end of her sentance and let a saddened sigh escape her. Trough, of course only Shiki could hear Kuro talking when she wasn't in her o.s form it still felt strange that no one but Shiki could hear her.

'no, I don't wanna talk about it, Kuro, you are my best friend and your the only one who knows about that, but still, I don't wanna talk about it even rather not remembering it, never again...' Shiki replied sternly but with a saddened tone and tried think about something else.

"Shiki-san? Why did Hao act so familiar with you before? He even called you by chan..." Manta suddenly asked and the question shocked Shiki so much that she almost jumped in surprise.

"huh?..."

"I agree, why did he act so familiar with you?" Anna questioned and Shiki sighed, relived that they had dropped the former subject.

"...just to make it clear, I hate the jackass, he's a total dork and I do not want anything to do with him unless it has something to do with kicking his ass into the next decade." Shiki said sternly and turned around to face Anna, Manta and Tamao.

Anna 'hm'-ed in response and Shiki continued to talk.

"this was just the second time I met him, the first time being by the airport with Yoh and the others. He wanted Yoh to be one of his followers and I told him to fuck off, then before he left he suddenly said that I caught his interest and something about honor...ah, who cares, the point is, I barely know the guy and I don't know why he's acting all lovey-dovey with me, quite frankly it irritates me and if I get the chance I will beat him so hard that not even his mother will recognize him." Shiki stated smugly and crossed her arms while walking backwards (so that they would get anywhere and not stop everytime they started a conversation). It sometimes really helped to have a special connection to ones guardian spirit.

"I do not mean to pry in your personal life or anything, but do you have any special shamanic powers that might be useful for Hao, or are you just exceptionally strong?" Anna asked causally and Tamao began to look nervous again.

Shiki shrugged and jumped over a rock behind her, not to trip over it and returned her attention to

the little group again.

"...your not going to use any information against me in the tournament are you? I know you really want Yoh to win so..."

"okay, I'll give you my word, but Yoh will still beat you if you'll ever have to fight in the tournament." Anna stated stubbornly and also crossed her arms over her chest but stopped in her track as Shiki also stopped walking. She let her arms fall loosely to her side's and a grim expression crawled upon Shiki's features.

"I can sense furyoku and almost the exact amount if it."

"but...thats impossible..." Tamao whimpered.

"does Hao somehow know this?" Anna asked sternly and Shiki shook her head in denial.

"no, not that I know of."

"good, because that wouldn't be good if it came out..." Anna replied, but distantly as if she was deep in thought.

"okay, I'm still new to this shaman stuff, what's so special with being able sense furyoku? I don't get it" Manta exclaimed and Shiki started walking again, trough this time she walked forwards instead of backwards.

"there are really few shamans who can sense furyoku, to be frank, I might be the only one in this tournament. Only eight shamans in history are known to have that gift. So except for the patches, who have the oracle bells to show the amount of furyoku a shaman has, I'm the only one who knows how much, for example Yoh has..."

"oh...so thats bad?" Manta replied puzzled.

"...it's both good and bad I guess..." shiki shrugged.

"a shaman who can sense furyoku often have a very big amount of it themselves and one who could do it caused a big ruckus in the shamanic world a couple of hundred of years ago." Anna explained seriously and Manta tensed.

"can Hao sense furyoku?"

"...not that I know of, but he sure can hide his furyoku damn good. I couldn't sense him at all before" Shiki said absent mindedly and glared at something infront of her. Was it just her or did that look like a dot of light?

"hey, I think thats the exit..." she said and immediately picked up her pace.

"Shiki-san, wait up! You're going to fast!" Manta yelled somewhere behind Shiki but she was too focused on the growing dot of light infront of her to bother to listen to the tiny human.

When Shiki finally reached the exit (wich she now was sure it was) she could hardly belive her eyes.  
She had never suspected that patch village would be so beautiful. The buildings looked like the ruins in Mesa Verdede through more stable and even through they still where in a cave there where trees, grass and even a lake there. The thing that caught Shiki's eye however, was a pillar of light in the middle of the cave, it looked like a thousand or more souls united into one white big ray of light. The sight overwhelmed Shiki's mind completely and she forgot all her surroundings for a while.

"so this is the great spirit!" Shiki uttered taken aback but snapped back into reality when she heard a 'woa!' from behind her.

She turned around and saw that the rest of the group had also caught up to her and all their eyes where fixated on the great spirit.

"that is amazing..." Tamao mumbled and clutched her t-shirt as if trying to keep her soul from jumping out of her chest and join the great spirit. Shiki understood the feeling, when she had locked her eyes on the great spirit she felt a tugging at her soul, as if it wanted to break free from the bodily prison, and she still felt it.

Manta was also staring wide eyed at the pillar of light and before any more words where said, the two of them, (Tamao and Manta) fainted.

Shiki had expected something like this to happen, to a human who only can see ghosts and doesn't have any furyoku, seeing the great spirit would be a breath-taking experience, causing his spirit to be overwhelmed. The same applies for most of the shamans.

"...they fainted..." Shiki said and sweatdropped at the sight.

"yeah, they're pathetic..." Anna stated and crossed her arms over her chest.

"hey, aren't they your friends?" Shiki asked a little absent mindedly and turned back to the great spirit.

"yeah, I guess..." Anna said.

"man this conversation is stupid..." Shiki said and sighed, she turned back to the group behind her and was about to begin to drag Tamao away from the entrance to Patch village when she felt a familiar furyoku presence just behind her.

"welcome to patch village, Shiki-san."

Shiki's expression lighted up and although she wasn't smiling, happiness radiated from her like madly. She immediately turned around to face the person and a smile crawled upon her features when her suspicion on who the person was was confirmed.

The person was a boy in the middle teens and he had messy dark brown hair braided together into waist long ponytail. He wore native American robes with black patterns and a silver plate on his chest that was shaped like a scorpion. He also wore a simple blue headband with two feathers and orange paint underneath his eyes.

"Nichrom!"

"Hello, Shiki-san, I'm glad you made it this far,...but, I'm not that surprised" He said and smiled.

"heh, of course I made it, I'm the future shaman queen afterall." Shiki said proudly and crossed her arms.

Nichrom only chuckled in response.

"so, how have you been? Caused any ruckus lately?" Shiki asked jokingly and actually smiled at the boy.

"No, I have been occupied with the tournament, unfortunately." Nichrom answered and chuckled again.

Shiki continued to smile at the boy thorough the conversation with all her heart. He was the only one except for her brother and his girlfriend who she ever **really** smiled to, he had been one of Shiki's first friends ever and they had known each other since long before the tournament even started.

When Shiki had been eleven years old, she and her brother (who then was fifteen) had traveled to America for vacation. Shiki had then gotten lost in a forest and stumbled across Nichrom. After a while the two of them became friends (also after Nichrom had saved Shiki's life trice) and then when the shaman tournament started and Nichrom was the one to test her abilities she had been absolutely delighted.

"so are you here to welcome us to Patch village or are you two just gonna stand there and chat?" Anna asked.

"...oh, yeah, right, we have to find Yoh..." Shiki said thoughtfully and shrugged, "...do you maybe know where he is, Nichrom? Yoh Asakura and his friends?"

Nichrom shook his head in denial before he replied.

"no, I'm sorry, I don't know where they are, neither do I know where your brother and Tenshi are, Shiki-san"

"m'kay,...that sucks..." Shiki said and sighed, "...well then I'll just go and search for them...or buy some souvenirs, you patch are broke, right?"

"yes...the shaman fight isn't really that cheap to arrange..." Nichrom said and sweatdropped.

"Anna, you wanna come with me?" Shiki asked and turned back to the blonde who now was crouching beside the still unconscious Manta.

"yeah, why not? We'll just have to move Tamao and Manta, it wouldn't be so smart to let them lay here..." Anna replied and stood up from her crouching position.

"I will fix that, the patch officiants are actually sent here to get the unconscious shamans to the resting rooms," Nichrom said and called forth his two guardian spirits, a scorpion and a cricket and activated his O.S.

"wow, thanks, Nichrom. Hey, Yellow whip, Purple kick, how are 'ya?" Shiki said and grinned at the two spirits.

"hey, girl, kicked any ass lately?" Yellow whip, the scorpion, joked and chuckled as the two spirits walked over to the two unconscious bodies.

"well...I beat these three girls two days ago...and I kicked this jackass where I kicked Nichrom the first time we met" Shiki said and grinned again at the thought of Hao's pained expression.

"ouch..." Yellow whip murmured but you could hear the amusement in his voice.

The two spirits picked up the unconscious bodies and walked over to Nichrom again with a body each on their back's.

"so,...see ya later, Nichrom, Yellow whip, Purple kick, oh, and again, I'm sorry about what happened to your brother, I'll miss him also, he was a nice person, even through I hardly ever met him..." Shiki said and smiled sadly at the patch as she began to walk away from the entrance to patch village.

"...yes, see you later Shiki-san." Nichrom said and began to also walk away with the two spirits following close behind.

** -Time skip-**

Shiki and Anna had to only walk a couple of hundred of metres before they where by the first souvenir store.  
It was small and comfortable but neither Shiki nor Anna found any souvenir of interest.

The two of them walked into three different stores before they finally found one where they had good souvenirs (in their opinion). The store was kept by a patch with the name of Kalim and Shiki found a keychain that she liked almost instantly. It was in the shape of a skull and it had a beautiful silver color.  
Anna however took her time with deciding on wich keychain she wanted to buy, she could at first not decide between a silver skeleton keychain and one in the shape of an apple.  
When Anna finally then decided upon the skeleton one she wasn't satisfied with the price (although Shiki had to agree that it was a bit expensive).

"I like this skeleton-keychain. The eyes look like emeralds!" Anna said and slammed the keychain down on the counter infront of Kalim.  
Shiki however was distracted by the furyoku presence of four very familiar shamans.  
'that's got to be them...that calm furyuko is unmistakably him' Shiki thought and chuckled mentally.

"a excellent choice! That'll make $380!" Kalim said and smiled.

"that's too expensive." Anna retorted stubbornly and Shiki sweatdropped.

"but that's real silver." Kalim said and let out a nervous chuckle. No one needed to be able to sense furyoku to feel Anna's threatening aura.

"3,80, is what you'll get."

"but Anna..." Shiki began but didn't end the sentance as she realized that

she wouldn't be able convince the blonde to accept the prize.

"ANNA! DONT BE SO STINGY!" a voice from the back of the small shop, at the entrance, suddenly yelled. Shiki immediately recognized the voice, it was Yoh.

Shiki spun around at the same time Anna did and when she saw the four familiar faces of Yoh, Horohoro, Ren and Ryu, Shiki had to let a small smile crawl upon her features. The boys where also of course accompanied by their spirit allies.

"Guys!" Shiki exclaimed happily.

"hi, Yoh." Anna said and Shiki swore she could see a tiny bit of happiness reflecting in the fiancée's eyes.

"what? 3,80 is a good prize for a keychain."

"YES, BUT THINK ABOUT HOW HARD THE PATCH HAVE WORKED TO MAKE IT" Yoh yelled back at his fiancée and Shiki almost lost her balance, they hadn't seen each others since like three months and they where acting like this?

"AREN'T YOU EVEN GREETING YOUR GIRL?" Horohoro yelled, apparently just as surprised as Shiki by the couple's reunion.

"MISTRESS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Ryu yelled as both he and Horohoro pushed Yoh aside so that he fell to the floor.

"I will make Yoh stronger." Anna stated calmly.

"yeah, right, the ultra senji ryakketsu..." Shiki said as she remembered the old book.

"the what now?" Yoh asked quizzically and looked over to Shiki, "hi, Shiki, how are you?"

Shiki only nodded in response as she noticed that Anna wanted to say something more.

"tsk, you cant make it a second without my help! You haven't even washed your clothes...and your running around in bath slippers! I need to make you much stronger." Anna stated and crossed her arms again, "or else, someone else might become shaman king...or queen"

Anna glanced at Shiki as she said the last sentance and Shiki grinned widely, 'so she thinks of me as a threat now, huh?' she thought proudly.

"good that you are okay at any case. You two wanna come with us to the motel?" Yoh asked after a while of awkward silence.

"okay, I have much to tell you." Anna replied, "you coming with us, Shiki?"

"oh, I can follow you a while but I've got to search for nii-san and his girlfriend, Tenshi." Shiki replied and shook her head.

"oh, too bad"

"you two know each other?" Horohoro asked.

"yeah, but if you wanna know how, you will have to ask Anna later, now I have to find nii-san..." Shiki said thoughtfully and shrugged.

The group began to walk out of the store (Anna finally payed for her keychain) and Shiki got the feeling that they where being watched but because of the many furyoku presences she couldn't confirm the feeling and shook it off for the time being, until a unfamiliar voice spoke that is.

"ha! He took his girlfriend with to the shaman fight! What a Chicken!"

Shiki glanced backwards at the source of the voice in irritation.  
The person who just spoke was an afro African kid in about the same age as Shiki and his guardian spirit seemed to be the big jaguar behind him. The boy wore an African wrap on the lower part of his body and a white shirt.

"you may be close buddies the whole lot of you, but the question is if you can make it to the next round." the African boy said but Shiki chose to ignore him and continue to walk. And she wasn't the only one in the group.

"hey! Don't ignore me! I said it for your sake!"

"sorry but we don't have any time. Leave us boy." Ryu said and put his hands in his pockets out of boredom.

"but the next thing is a tournament! You get it? A tournament!" the boy yelled frantically and Shiki had to snigger, 'of course it's a tournament! I mean it's called shaman tournament...or shaman fight, but anyway!' Shiki thought amusedly.

"...a tournament?" Horohoro asked now suddenly serious and turned his head towards the African.

When the African boy then said 'permanent' out of some unknown reason Horohoro and the rest of the boys who had caught interest chose to ignore him again.

"COME BACK! LISTEN TO ME! ITS TRUE! I SWEAR!" The boy yelled and suddenly Ren was infront of him with his Chinese spear pulled out and pointed towards the African threateningly. Who in his turn fell backwards on his butt in surprise.

"then out with it, and hurry up! I'm not in the mood right now. If you screw with us you're soon headless." Ren stated grimly.

"you're never in the mood Ren.." Shiki said jokingly and tried to not burst out laughing as Ren blushed in embarrassment.

"out with it peasant." Ren said grimly as his blush had wanished.

"o-o-okay, I get it! But I'm not joking! I'm searching for teammates!" The African stuttered and put up his hands in defeat as Ren's spear inched closer.

"teammates?" Ren asked.

"exactly, teammates. The tournament will be held in Japan. We will travel back there soon. It's three against three and we can put together our teams by ourselves." the boy said and smiled smugly.

'perfect, if what this boy says is true, then I'll just have to find nii-san and Tenshi then I'll have my team...' Shiki thought and crossed her arms over her chest as she listened intensely.

"they who don't make a team will be disqualified, and if I'm not entirely blind, you need backup...thus, me! According to the information I have gathered it'll be that way. I swear my life on it!"

Shiki let out a sigh, 'that sure does sound like something the patch would do...' she thought and scratched the back of her head thoughtfully.  
Now all Shiki had to do was to find her brother and Tenshi, but this place was enormous and she probably only had a few days left until they would depart again and then there was the problem of keeping away from Hao. Shiki had decided after her last meeting with the fire shaman that she would try to keep as much distance as possible from Hao and his gang, with the exception of Kanna, Mari and Matti.

"whats your name?" Shiki heard Ren ask sternly and she snapped out of her thoughts.

The African boy grinned smugly before he answered with a proud glint in his eyes.

"Chocolove."

And the African boy got poked on his nose with Ren's spear.

"GAH! He stabbed me!" the African yelled and started rolling around on the ground while clutching his nose where the spear had stabbed him just moments ago.

"it's that your real name?" Ren asked surprised and Shiki burst out laughing.

"yes it is my real name! Could you please stop laughing!"

Shiki reduced her laughter a bit but only by a bit, when was the last time she had laughed this much? Being with Yoh and his friends had certainly softened her up a lot.  
When Shiki finally stopped laughing, completely this time, she heard Yoh and Anna talk about something but didn't bother to figure out what as she slowly heard other voices, yellings and gasps from the plaza.

"why are they screaming? It's coming from the plaza." Horohoro said puzzled as he also noticed the noises.

"has something happened?" Ryu asked and Shiki found the answer when she recognized four furyoku presences.  
The first three where clearly Kanna and her group's but the fourth presence took a while for Shiki to figure out who it belonged to, until a picture of a little African girl with afro sitting beside a big rock came to her mind.

'...Hao...I should've known...' Shiki thought angrily but returned to reality when she heard, Chocolove it was? utter a 'tsk'.

"it's best if you let me join you...and that fast. Because the tournament's toughest competitor and big favorite just arrived."

"the toughest competitor and the tournament's big favorite?"

Shiki stared in disbelief at Chocolove, was he serious?

"you hear how they're yelling on the plaza, right?" Chocolove asked smugly.

'yes, yes we hear that!' Shiki thought frantically and growled.

"almost every shaman knows about him...he has lived for over a thousand years only to become shaman king."

Shiki then snapped up fully alerted, was he serious? A thousand years?

"he's the star man...with an army of loyal servants, a burning fire that burns all in his way. I'm talking about..." but before Chocolove could end his sentance Shiki cut in between.

"Hao..."

Shiki growled under her breath, of course it had to be him! Why did life have to hate her so much?  
'Just great, the guy, who apparently is hitting on me is a thousand years old with a whole army of shamans following him and has a personal space problem, just great...' Shiki thought sarcastically to herself and pouted.

"hey! Don't steal my moment!" Chocolove complained as the boys stared at her in disbelief.

"just continue with the explanation, afro boy." Anna said and glared at Chocolove threateningly.

Chocolove immediately began explaining again.

"Well as I said, he's the number one favorite shaman in the fight and his team is the biggest of the three forces."

"the three forces?" Horohoro, Ryu and Yoh questioned at once.

"the three school uniforms!"

This time it was Shiki's turn to stare in disbelief.  
Chocolove had suddenly put on a japanese school uniform and grinned smugly.

"what the..."

"thats so not funny!" Shiki exclaimed as Ren stabbed the joker on his nose again.

"I have never heard of the three forces." Ren said sternly.

"don't you know anything? Three organizations are participating in the shaman fight! One is Hao's team. The other two where created to stop Hao's team. Gandhara, who consists of Buddhists shamans, and the X-Laws."

"The X-Laws?" Ryu suddenly exclaimed as if he'd heard about them before but after not so pleasant events.

"never heard of 'em, continue will you?" Shiki said boredly and ignored the disappointed looks she got from the boys.

"um..yes...the leaders of these forces are shamans of Kami-class."

"Kami-class?..." Ryu asked bewildered and Shiki had to smirk at the mention of Kuro's league.

"there is one known shaman however, who also is a Kami-class but isn't in any of the forces. She's known as the black crow and she is said to be traveling either alone or with her brother and his girlfriend..." Chocolove said mysteriously but was cut off by a growl coming from Shiki.

"Nichrom's idea, it must be baka-Nichrom"s idea..." Shiki whispered to herself and facepalmed.

"hey, Shiki you okay? " Horohoro asked as Shiki let out another animalistic growl.

"no, I'm not okay, someone has gotten me a goddamned amateur nickname!" Shiki growled and kicked a stone infront of her. The stone flew a few feet before it hit a wall of some house and Shiki cursed again.

"wait...your telling me...you're the black crow?" Chocolove questioned shocked and Shiki nodded absent mindedly.

"if the black crow is a fourteen year old girl who just happen to have a Kami-class guardian spirit who likes to take the shape of a raven and a brother who happens to have a girlfriend since a year back...then yes..." Shiki said and as she glanced at the boys she saw that they looked pretty shocked. She sighed.

"...you have a Kami-class spirit?" Anna asked and Shiki noticed that even she looked quite taken aback.

"hai, her name is Kuro..." Shiki replied.

"wow, thats pretty cool..." Horohoro said and grinned.

"hehe, sugoi." Yoh said.

"its unimportant..." Ren said and crossed his arms, "would you please continue with the explanation now"

Chocolove snapped out of his trance and cleared his throat.

"well...no usual shaman would do good in challenging a Kami-class, the best way to fulfill ones dream is to serve one of these forces. And seventy percent of the shamans here are already in one of these forces."

"are they?" Horohoro questioned.

" thats why I gotta find a team. Believe what you want, but it's true." Chocolove said and shrugged.

"so, most shamans are in a team? How do you know?" Ren asked.

"information...is my weapon. To succeed in this world you have to get the right information, and that fast. It goes with all. Music, Fashion, politics, business..." Chocolove said smugly and Shiki snorted.

"I've made it trough this without much information, and look at me now, I'm probably one of the strongest shamans here." Shiki said.

"hey! Dont interrupt me again..." Chocolove said offended by Shiki's interruption.

"yeah, yeah, sorry, please continue" Shiki said sarcastically.

"...well...as I said, to have information means to know your enemy. Thats why I knew that Hao would come, even through I didn't see him with my own eyes." Chocolove continued to explain, "You see, I have a good nose. A nose that sniffles around really fast."

The big jaguar materialized again beside Chocolove and the boy grinned confidently.

"greet my guardian ghost, Mic the jaguar. With his nose and my talent I will become the world's funniest comedian." Chocolove did a thumbs up, "the people are screaming after one. It's my dream."

"thats the most ridiculous dream I've ever heard and that coming from the worst comedian I've ever met, even Kuro's funnier than you, and I had to teach her what fun even meant." Shiki said cooley and crossed her arms over her chest.

Chocolove stopped dead as if frozen.

"...you're really cold..."

A: and another chapter done! Although this chapter was quite boring (and without Hao), but it was important for future events.

Shiki: oh, yeah, your gonna make me suffer more...

A: don't worry! In the end everything will work out and you will live a happy life with your loved one!

Shiki:...man, what did you smoke?...and what exactly do you mean with loved one?

A:...in due time...?


	6. Chapter 6

**Left and found : Chapter 6, family reunion!**

A: And another chapter!

Shiki: and because schools out, A-black-san will be able to update more quickly,...well if she isn't too lazy or on vacation somewhere in the stone age...

A:...yeah, what she said...

**Shiki: anyway, I'll just do the disclaimer now, AnonymusBlack does not own Shaman king, she does however own her Oc's and part of the plot. In with the story!**

Shiki was walking down the street with a satisfied grin.  
She had left Yoh and the others temporally to search for her brother in the village but unfortunately she hadn't had any luck yet.

Ren had decided that Chocolove would be in his team as a third member together with Horohoro and Chocolove had gladly, if a bit surprised, accepted. Yoh had also wanted Shiki on his team at first but Shiki had declined and explained that she had her own team waiting for her, her brother and his girlfriend.

_"okay, we have been walking and running around in almost an hour, but we haven't found any trace of your brother, what do you suggest we do?"_ Kuro asked as she materialized on Shiki's right shoulder as Shiki stopped for a minute outside a Chinese restaurant.

"well...we should keep a look out for explosions..." Shiki replied but didn't bother to do it mentally because there where hardly any shamans around.

_"...agreed, your brother has a...tendency to get into fights..."_ Kuro replied and chuckled slightly.

Shiki smiled gently and stroked the top of Kuro's raven head as she continued to walk down the street. She didn't know how she would have been able to get this far if it hadn't been for Kuro, besides that, Kuro was the perfect spirit ally and best friend, even if she was dead.

Shiki chuckled a little at the thought, most people wouldn't take being best friends with a ghost that well. But then again, Shiki had never been that normal, always doing the opposite of what she was told and stood proudly out of line.

Shiki began to hum as she turned left and began to walk down another street, the melody came from a song she had heard her mom sing a couple of times when she was small. Shiki remembered that it was called something like 'Inyou no Chigiri', the pledge of the ying and yang, she found however to her disappointment that she had forgotten the lyrics.

Shiki continued to hum on the song the next couple of minutes but was oblivious to the yellow cat-like eyes watching her every movement until the figure jumped down from a building right infront of her.

Shiki gasped in surprise and almost put up a furyoku barrier (out of reflex) but stopped herself as she recognized the person.

"KEKKI!"

The black ghost cat infront of Shiki smiled confidently and before Shiki could say anything much as a greeting, the cat walked up to the girl and hit her in the head with the shelf of it's sword.

_"You stupid girl! Do you know how much you've worried your brother!"_ the cat scolded and let the sword rest over his shoulder while his free hand pointed accusingly at Shiki.

"owchie...that hurt you damn cat..." Shiki muttered and rubbed the top of her head where the cat had hit her. She growled when she felt a bump starting to grow beneath her hair.

_"Where you even listening? Your brother has been worried sick and he sent me out to search for you as fast as he heard that you had arrived!"_ the cat yelled.

"I heard you alright. No need to yell, your attracting a crowd" Shiki hissed and true to her word, almost all of the surrounding shamans where staring at the girl with the raven on her shoulder and the clothed cat.

_"that does not matter! You will be coming with me now young lady and apologize to your brother!"_ the cat, Kekki yelled again and Shiki scrowled.

"hey, he's the one who disappeared in the carnival...thingy..." Shiki shot back at the cat but followed him as he began walking away.

"geez, you should learn to relax you damned cat..." Shiki muttered and sighed.

_"and you should learn to be more responsible, brat."_ the cat replied and grinned.

_"Kekki-dono, where are we going?"_ Kuro asked as the trio came closer and closer to the big forest in the outer edge of the village. She was now sitting on Kekki's head instead of on Shiki's shoulder.

_"Saito-sama wanted to relax in the forest, everywhere else was too noisy...plus... I think he wanted some alone time with Tenshi-dono..."_ the cat replied and cleared his throat.

"oh, my god, can they get any more lovey-dovey with each other?" Shiki said and facepalmed, sure, she understood that they loved each other so deeply that it would even last in hell, but in Shiki's opinion they where overdoing it.

_"oh, come on, Shiki-chan, it's cinda cute."_ Kuro said and giggled softly.

"oh, damn, now Kuro's girly side's emerging too...I'm doomed" Shiki said jokingly and Kekki sighed.

When the trio finally got to the forest Shiki's legs already felt like jelly from the long walk and running around in the village in search for her brother and when she heard her stomach rumbling she remembered that she hadn't had any food since the piece of bread she'd gotten in the helicopter and she wasn't sure how long ago that was.

_"you hungry, kid?"_ Kekki asked as he apparently also heard the girl's rumbling stomach.

"yeah, but I'll go and buy something later..." Shiki replied with a sigh, "I made some friends and I was supposed to meet them later in this Chinese restaurant..." Shiki added as she remembered her promise with Yoh.

_"...oh, well then..."_ Kekki replied absent mindedly and pushed a tree branch out of his way with the shelf of the sword.

"goddamnit, what's nii-chan doing this far in in the forest?" Shiki complained as she and Kekki had been walking another ten minutes (Kuro had de-materialized into Shiki's necklace again).

_"were soon there, brat, dont get impatient."_ the cat replied sternly and pushed another branch out of the way. Shiki sighed but didn't object, no good would come from arguing with this ghost cat and he was too stubborn to back down from one too.

Shiki would normally be searching for her brother's furyoku presence by these circumstances but because of all the shamans and their different furyokus Shiki had revived a headache and therefore she chose not to depend too much on her 'gift' for the moment.  
Shiki was therefore glad that the cat had found her and was now leading her to her brother, Saito Minatsuki and his girlfriend Tenshi Yamamoto.  
Shiki smiled slightly at the thought of seeing her brother again, how long had it been? Three months maybe?  
'damn' Shiki cured mentally and bit her lower lip nervously, 'i really have lost track of time here...'.

As the duo reached a waterfall somewhere in the forest Shiki breathed out in relief, there by one of the trees beside the pound beneath the waterfall sat a eighteen year old boy with distorted short pitch black hair, chocolate brown eyes and a slightly tanned body. He was shorter than Ryu and his clothes consisted of; a yellow T-shirt, baggy jeans and sandals almost like Yoh's. He also wore a necklace similar to Shiki's but instead of a raven amulet he had two silver rings attached to the black chain.  
Beside the boy, on the grass lay a girl on her stomach and she was toying around with the two rings lovingly. She had brown waist long hair but her bangs covered her eyes so you couldn't see them. She was healthily pale and a midnight blue dress that went to her knees covered her slender yet curvy body.  
The boy perked up happily as he saw Shiki.

"Shikihime-chan!"

"n-nii-chan!" Shiki stuttered at the call of her full name **(A/N yes, Shiki's real name is Shikihime but she doesn't like it and therefore uses only Shiki)**

Saito immediately got up from his sitting position and ran over to the whitenette with Tenshi (the brown haired girl) following close behind.

Shiki felt as if her bones where being crushed as her brother hugged her tightly and almost let out a sigh of relief as he let her go.

"damn, Shikihime! Do you know how much you've worried us?" Tenshi scolded with a pout as she also had hugged the dazed whitenette.

"the damn cat already scolded me enough, you two don't have to yell me out too..." Shiki muttered and Kekki sent her a threatening glare.

"I'm not scolding you sis, but still you worried us, especially when Goldva said that we would have to find our own way to Patch village, honestly, sis, you have the worst sense of direction in history..." Saito said and grinned.

"thanks, nii-chan, but I'm not sure these two agree..." Shiki replied as she glanced at Kekki and Tenshi and saw their menacing glares (through Shiki could only assume that Tenshi was glaring because her bangs where in the way).

_"you should be more respectful that your brother is such a soft-heart, brat."_ Kekki said and tapped his back with the shelf of his sword, a thing he always did when he was irritated.

"you could have gotten lost, robbed or raped" Tenshi said sternly and Shiki gulped, if there was one person that scared Shiki more than _'him'_**(A/N no it's not Hao)** it was an angry Tenshi.

"well I wasn't so let's just drop the subject..." Shiki said and sighed again.

"for now..." Tenshi said and Shiki could almost feel her glare though Tenshi's bangs of dark brown hair.

"so what happened to you after we lost each others?" Saito asked and sat down in the grass.

Tenshi, Kekki and Shiki joined him soon after.

Shiki retold everything that had happened since she lost track of her brother and Tenshi. Apparently even Saito, Kekki and Tenshi had heard about the fire shaman and as Shiki told them that he had 'taken interest' in her they gasped and looked shocked, through they laughed when Shiki told them where he hit Hao.  
As Shiki finally was done with the telling, her stomach had began rumbling again.

"you hungry?" Tenshi asked and Shiki nodded.

"yeah, but I promised Yoh and

the others that I would meet them in this Chinese restaurant...you can join me if you want" Shiki replied and stood up, stretched and yawned in exhaustion.

"sure, why not? We haven't had any food for a while now." Saito said and Tenshi nodded in agreement.

** -Time skip-**

Shiki stood outside the Chinese restaurant at last with her brother and Tenshi behind her and Kekki infront of her, thanks to Shiki, the group had gotten lost a couple of times in the village and it had taken them at least an hour to find the restaurant again.

The cat pushed the door open and the small group stepped inside, a heavy smell of chicken and different oriental sauces met the noses of Shiki, Saito and Tenshi and as Shiki took a look around she saw the shamans she was looking for (+Manta). There was however one person sitting by the same table as Yoh she didn't recognize. A German he looked like, he wore a big light blue hat and a worn doctors robes together with a yellow scarf. He looked to be in his mid thirties or twenties but Shiki couldn't tell wich because of the thick clothing. He had blonde short hair and grey eyes. Shiki also noticed that he had many scars and he was sitting in a wheelchair, from what Shiki could identify of the man; he was a doctor.  
Shiki gulped.

"Shiki! We where just wondering where you where!" Horohoro yelled as Shiki began to approach them.

"yeah, sorry, I got a bit lost..." Shiki said and scratched the back of her head in embarrassment as she reached the table.

"so, is this your brother, Shiki-san?" Yoh asked and motioned behind Shiki at Saito.

"yeah, and the girl's his girlfriend Tenshi and this..." Shiki picked up Kekki by under his arms, "is nii-chan's spirit ally Kekki"

_"OY! Brat put me down! You do not have the right to lift me!"_ Kekki complained and tried to hit Shiki with the shelf of his sword again.

The group stared disbelieving at the talking cat who tried to get out of the girl's grip but failed until Shiki got tired of holding the struggling cat and let him fall to the ground. At least she had gotten back at him for the scolding before.

"...the cat talked..." Manta stuttered.

"yeah, he's a spirit, so he talks..." Shiki tried to explain and she swore she could have heard Yoh mutter something like 'he looks like Matamune'.

Shiki stole a chair from one of the surrounding tables and sat down beside Anna while Saito and Tenshi occupied the closest table together with a scrowling Kekki.

"so...who are you" Shiki asked the doctor after a while.

"I'm Faust, it's nice to meet you Miss Shiki.." the doctor answered and smiled, Shiki however didnt trust the man, she had never liked doctors or anything that had to do with hospitals.

"...nice...to meet you too..." Shiki replied hesitantly.

"so, when do you reckon we'll go to Tokyo again, Shiki?" Horohoro asked and Shiki shrugged.

"I don't know...I could be in a couple of days to a couple of weeks, months even...hey, Tenshi, Kekki, you always seem to be so well informed, what do you reckon?" Shiki said and turned to the table behind her where Saito, Tenshi and Kekki sat.

"how the heck should I know? Ask Kekki, he was here fivehundred years ago in the last shaman fight." Tenshi replied sternly as she ordered her food.

"the cat was here?" Horohoro burst out and everyone at the table (except for Anna) turned around to look at the kimono clad cat, who frowned in response.

_"yes I was here, but that doesn't mean that I know what's gonna happen now, that was fivehundred years ago, many things have changed...through I'm pretty sure that the final battling ground is gonna be the same..."_ Kekki said and patted his back with the shelf of his sword again in irritation.

"oh...that sucks..." Shiki said and pouted as one of the patch walked up to their table to get their order.  
The patch (whom Shiki didnt know) took her, Yoh, Anna, Manta, Tamao, Horohoro, Ren, Ryu and Chocolove's order (Faust didn't want any food) and then left for the kitchen.  
A couple of minutes later, the same patch came back with Tenshi and Saito's food and after another couple of minutes he came back with Shiki's table's food.

"this is cinda good..." Shiki praised as she had taken her first bite of the noodle soup she had ordered.

"hmph, this is nothing like real Chinese food." Ren complained grimly but continued to eat his food all the while.

Shiki sighed at Ren's stubborn complain and fought back the urge to roll her eyes. She really didn't know how they had been able to soften up her so much in so little time, even Kekki and the rest of her little 'family' had noticed the slight change in personality.

The last thought that crossed Shiki's mind before the group exited the restaurant was; 'i shouldn't let them change me too much, or else I might show my weaknesses...and it might end up like 'that' time...'.

**A: I know, I know, it's short and cinda boring, I had a small writers block so I cinda rushed things but at least some more Oc's where introduced!**

Saito: what am I doing here?

Shiki: Saito-nii-chan!

A: aww, family reunion.

Shiki: shut up!

Saito: Shikihime! Why are you being so mean to the author?

Shiki: because she's making me suffer, and I've got a feeling that it's only just beginning...

A: ...to all you readers, thank you for reading this story and I'm glad for any reviews I might get, see you next time!

Saito: I'm still wondering what I'm doing here...  



	7. Chapter 7

**A/N**

**okay...you are all gonna hate me for this... but this isn't a new chapter...I'm rewriting this story, pleasedontkillme!**

**I have a major writers block when it comes to this story and when i try to come up with some ideas by re-reading it, i get irritated by small and big misstakes. i know whats gonna happen and all that but i don't know how to write it yet. so please forgive me .**

**I will try to get the new version up as soon as possible. It's gonna be called, either "a game for fools" or "the cursed one".**

**i hope you will look it up when i post it.**


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